Spaceflight Now





Spacewalk No. 3 ends
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: September 5, 2009


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Astronauts John "Danny" Olivas and Christer Fuglesang snaked 60-foot-long electrical cables along the space station's hull to a port where a new module will be attached next year to complete the final major objective of a mostly trouble-free seven-hour one-minute spacewalk.

But one power cable refused to plug in properly, forcing Fuglesang to wrap it in insulation and leave it for a future assembly crew to deal with. While he was finishing up that task, his helmet camera housing somehow detached from his spacesuit. It was still connected by a power cable, but the astronauts were worried it might come off and float away.

Olivas disconnected the cable for his crewmate and removed the helmet camera assembly. Fuglesang, now lacking helmet lights as well, headed back to the airlock before a fast-approaching sunset.

"And Christer, no need to rush, but hurry every chance you get," Patrick Forrester radioed from inside the shuttle Discovery. "Sunset in about six minutes."

Mission control then chimed in, reassuring the astronauts that "Christer can use his helmet light as a flashlight, since it does still function, on his way back."

A few moments later, back at the station's airlock, Fuglesang said, "my guess is, when I was working that connector my helmet bumped into those cables at some point. It must have very unluckily unlocked it."

"Maybe so," Olivas agreed.

The spacewalk ended at 11:40 p.m. when the astronauts began repressurizing the Quest airlock module.

The balky connector and the detached helmet camera were the only hiccups in an otherwise smooth-sailing spacewalk. The astronauts successfully deployed a payload attachment mechanism on the right side of the lab's solar power truss; replaced a circuit breaker and an orientation control sensor; and installed two Global Positioning System satellite antennas.

The spacewalkers then turned their attention to unrolling two spools of electrical cables, using copper wire ties to secure them along a circuitous path running 60 feet from a power panel to the left-side port of the Unity module where a new module - Tranquility - will be attached next year.

"And some good news to share," Robert Hanley radioed from mission control in Houston. "All the ORUs (circuit breaker and rate gyro assembly) that you've installed have been powered up and are operational."

"That's great news, Houston," Forrester replied.

The two GPS anteannas also passed initial tests.

In two earlier spacewalks last Tuesday and Thursday, Olivas, Fuglesang and Nicole Stott replaced a massive ammonia coolant tank and retrieved a pair of experiments for return to Earth. The astronauts also accomplished a handful of get-ahead tasks.

Total EVA time through three spacewalks was 20 hours and 15 minutes. The overall total through 133 spacewalks since station assesmbly began in 1998 is 830 hours and 51 minutes.

Olivas' total through five spacewalks over two mission stands at 34 hours and 28 minutes, moving him up to 25th on the list of most experienced spacewalkers. Fuglesang, who also has five spacewalks in two missions, has logged 31 hours and 54 minutes of EVA time, moviong him up to 29th on the list.

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