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Spacewalk concludes BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: December 14, 2006 Running ahead of schedule, astronauts Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang wrapped up a successful spacewalk today, re-wiring two of the space station's four main electrical circuits so flight controllers could tie them into the lab's permanent power system. The spacewalk began at 2:41 p.m. - about a half hour early - and ended at 7:41 p.m., a full hour ahead of schedule, when the astronauts began repressurizing the station's Quest airlock module. The five-hour spacewalk was the 75th devoted to station assembly and maintenance and the second for Curbeam and Fuglesang, pushing their total EVA time to 11 hours and 36 minutes. The total spacewalk time devoted to station assembly now stands at 455 hours and 50 minutes. A veteran of five spacewalks over two missions, Curbeam has now logged 31 hours and 25 minutes walking in space, moving him up to 20th on the list of most experienced spacewalkers. Curbeam will be joined by station astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams during a third and final spacewalk Saturday to re-wire the station's other two main circuits and to activate a second ammonia cooling loop. Curbeam and Fuglesang, Sweden's first astronaut, have been strictly business during the first two spacewalks, barely mentioning anything beyond the work at hand. Today, during a brief pause, they marveled at the northern lights seen from the vantage point of space. "Wow, is that an aurora?" Fuglesang wondered aloud as the shuttle-station complex sailed through darkness toward northern Europe. "I think it is." "It certainly is, Christer, that's an aurora. I'm sure you've seen as many as I have," said shuttle pilot William Oefelein, who grew up in Alaska. "No, I haven't seen many. Someone should turn out all the lights outside the station." "I'm not thinking that's a good idea, Christer," Williams joked from the Destiny laboratory module. "It's different when you look down on them instead of up at them," Oefelein mused. "Yeah. No, I don't see many in Stockholm." "Gosh, it's beautiful," Curbeam said. "Wow."
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