Sunita Williams and Michael Lopez-Alegria removed and discarded large, sheet-like Sun shields that were no longer needed on the station (Image: NASA TV)
Two astronauts took a walk in space from the International Space Station on Thursday to pack up blankets and covers no longer needed to keep gear warm.
It was the third spacewalk in nine days and the most intense work NASA has attempted on the station without a shuttle crew present.
“You did an excellent job,” spacewalk coordinator Chris Looper at Mission Control told the crew.
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NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Michael Lopez-Alegria opened the station’s hatch at 1326 GMT, about half an hour earlier than planned, and were back inside the airlock 6.5 hours later.
“It’s a beautiful day,” Williams said before floating out to begin her fourth spacewalk, a record number for a woman.
Their main job was removing and discarding Sun shields no longer needed to keep equipment warm. NASA had changed the station’s orientation to the Sun and the shrouds could have caused heat to build up and damage the systems.
Power tap
Williams and Lopez-Alegria folded the bulky covers into two bundles, which on Earth would have weighed 9 kilograms (20 pounds), and tossed them to burn up on re-entry into the atmosphere.
“I can throw it right at the Sun,” Lopez-Alegria joked. “Pretty nice,” said Williams, watching the shield float away.
The astronauts then finished connecting a power cable to allow visiting shuttles to tap into the station’s electrical system and stay about three days longer than before. They also worked on a cargo holder needed for future missions.
During the two previous spacewalks, they had hooked up a new cooling system for the $100 billion multinational station.
It was the ninth spacewalk for station commander Lopez-Alegria, tying him for the most by a US astronaut. He will break that record with another spacewalk planned for 22 February with the station flight engineer, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.
Lopez-Alegria now holds the record for most time spent walking in space by a US astronaut with 61 hours and 22 minutes. He is second on the global list behind Russian Anatoly Solovyev, who has logged more than 82 hours.
