Tue, March 24, 2009
WASHINGTON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Two astronauts from U.S. space shuttle Discovery's seven-member crew completed the third and last spacewalk on Monday, but failed to free up an equipment storage platform that was accidentally jammed Saturday during astronauts' second spacewalk.
The NASA TV shows that Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold exited the space station at around 11:37 a.m. EDT (1537 GMT) to start the outing, which lasted about six hours and 27 minutes. It was the second spacewalk for both Acaba and Arnold and the 123rd spacewalk in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance, totaling 775 hours.
Using a hammer, they managed to loosen a pin that Acaba and another astronaut accidentally inserted upside down on the platform during Saturday's spacewalk. But the platform would not extend into the proper position, despite repeated efforts.
Mission Control instructed the astronauts to tie the platform down using sturdy tethers so it won't bang around.
During the spacewalk, Acaba and Arnold moved a crew and equipment cart from one end of the space station to another. They also lubricated the tip of the space station's robotic arm and rewired a circuit breaker to separate the wiring for the station's gyroscopes so that a problem with one of the positioning devices will not make two inoperable.
Discovery was launched into space on March 15. During its eight-day stay with the station, three spacewalks were conducted by astronauts. If all goes well, it is scheduled to undock from the station on March 25, towards a planned March 27 landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
