Utente:Broc/Sandox004

Spacewalkers Continue Work Outside of Station

Spacewalker Rex Walheim Image above: Spacewalker Rex Walheim works in the payload bay of space shuttle Atlantis. Photo credit: NASA TV

Outside the International Space Station, STS-122 astronauts Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel completed the removal of an expended Nitrogen Tank Assembly (NTA) and the installation of a new one on the P1 truss. The tank is part of the orbital outpost’s cooling system.

With the help of the station’s robotic arm, the spacewalkers moved the new NTA from its position in space shuttle Atlantis’ payload bay. They temporarily stowed it on a Crew and Equipment Translation Aid cart while they removed the expended tank. With the new NTA installed, the old tank will be transferred to the orbiter’s payload bay for return to Earth.

Walheim and Schlegel began the second of STS-122’s three scheduled spacewalks at 9:27 a.m. EST.

Mission Specialist Stanley Love will join Walheim for STS-122’s third spacewalk on Friday at 8:35 a.m. They will install two payloads on the exterior of the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory: SOLAR, an observatory to monitor the sun; and the European Technology Exposure Facility that will carry eight experiments requiring exposure to the space environment.