The International Space Station was relieved of a dysfunctional experiment and fitted with a new external camera during a spacewalk performed on Monday.
Astronaut Bill McArthur and cosmonaut Valery Tokarev ventured outside the ISS at 1532 GMT and left the outpost uncrewed for 5 hours, 22 minutes.
The spacewalkers affixed the new camera and tripod to the station鈥檚 hull. It will help future crews guide the station鈥檚 robotic arm when attaching massive new pieces of hardware. This hardware, such as new solar panels, will be ferried to the ISS by the space shuttle.
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The other major chore was to climb to the top of the ISS and unbolt a device called the Floating Potential Probe. This measured the electrical charge outside the station, but it has stopped working. It has also started to loosen, being shaken each time ships dock with the ISS. NASA removed the FPP as it wanted to be sure that parts did not shake free and damage the space station.
Once it was removed, McArthur tossed the 27-kilogram device overboard, behind the station. It should burn up in the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere within 100 days.
Air lock contamination
The spacewalk was the first for 30 months conducted in US spacesuits and from the station鈥檚 US module. In April 2003, astronauts discovered that air inside the US Quest airlock had become contaminated by recyclable metal oxide canisters, used for maintenance of the space suits.
These components, and a faulty heat exchanger, which keeps the space suits cool in the airlock, have since been replaced, making the module usable again.
NASA generally prefers to have someone inside the space station during spacewalks, to coordinate the astronauts鈥� movements with the help of instructions from ground control. In addition, it is easier for a spacewalkers to get in and out of their bulky spacesuits if a third person is there to help them.
But it is not the first time the station has been temporarily abandoned for work outside 鈥� Russia has conducted eight such spacewalks on the ISS. 鈥淲hile it鈥檚 not routine, it is something we鈥檙e willing to do and see the need to do before we get back to a crew of three,鈥� Pete Hasbrook, NASA鈥檚 manager for this crew rotation said prior to Monday鈥檚 spacewalk.
The ISS has been limited to two crew members since the shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. But a third crew member could join the station as early as May 2006, with the next scheduled shuttle launch.
