Washington: Two US astronauts has stepped out on the second and final spacewalk of the discovery shuttle missiion at the international space station to work on repairs at the orbiting lab.
"Once again rock stars, very impressive work today," said astronaut Nicole scott, who choreographed the space walk from inside the space station, as the pai wrapped up their work after six hours and 14 minutes, yesterday.
Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew embarked on their second spacewalk together at 21 12 IST to complete work on a failed ammonia pump, remove installation on the Tranquillity module and install spare parts on the Canadian robot Dexture.
The walk was briefly delayed by a minor leak in American Steve Bowen's spacesuit, caused by a faulty O-ring seal in a lithium hydrixide canister that scrub out carbon dioxide. A new O-ring was installed to replace it..
Bowen was a late addition to the six-member US crew that blasted off aboard the Discovery on february 24, sfter astronaut Tim Kopra was injured in a bicycle accident Kopra who was standing with the help of crutches, was among colleagues at mission control in Houston yesterday, and NASA said he would be "helping out" with the spacewalk from there.
Tuesday was Drew's second spacewalk and marked the seventh for Bowen. The Discovery shuttle is the first of three US shuttles set to become museum pieces later this year.Endeavour is to lift off on Aprial 19 followed by Atlantis on june 28, marking the official end of the US space shuttle program after 30 years.