US astronaut Bob Curbeam and Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang have set out on the second spacewalk of their 12-day mission in an effort to begin reconfiguring the power on the International Space Station (ISS).
鈥淚 think I see sunlight,鈥� Curbeam said as the hatch opened. The spacewalk officially began at 1441 EST (1941 GMT).
鈥淵es I see sunlight as well,鈥� Fuglesang said.
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During their planned 5-hour, 55-minute foray into space, they will rewire two of the station鈥檚 four power channels so the station can receive electricity from a recently attached solar array. In order to do this, half of the station鈥檚 power had to be shut off.
The astronauts inside the ISS were busy hooking up jumper cables in the Destiny laboratory module so that critical systems would still work when the power was reduced. One of these efforts did not succeed 鈥� they lost the back-up for a computer in the Destiny laboratory module.
Half of the lights in the lab have been shut off and communication between the Russian and US ends of the station will be limited during the spacewalk. Ground control has also warned the eight astronauts onboard to avoid areas where there might be pockets of carbon dioxide due to poor ventilation during the power-down.
After Curbeam and Fuglesang attach cables and rewire the station, the station鈥檚 power will be restored.
The same tasks have to be conducted on the mission鈥檚 third spacewalk, currently scheduled for Saturday. The station鈥檚 newest crew member, Sunita Williams, will replace Fuglesang on this spacewalk.
Curbeam and Fuglesang may have to make yet another excursion into space to try to fix an older solar array that did not properly retract on Wednesday (Solar-panel fold failure may mean extra spacewalk). Mission managers could make their decision on a possible spacewalk or other possible fix as early as Saturday.
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