"Congratulations, guys. We sure appreciate the hard work you did for our beautiful space station," commander Mike Fincke radioed the spacewalkers from the outer airlock. "You guys proved that flexibility is definitely key. And a special congratulations to Joe. This was your first time out there, great job, my friend. So congratulations." But time lost trying to fully deploy the UCCAS mechanism forced the spacewalkers to defer the deployment of another cargo platform on the right side of the station's solar power truss. Swanson also had problems disconnecting a cable from a patch panel on the zenith 1, or Z1, truss segment extending up from the Unity connecting module. Dominican Republic RPCV Joe Acaba is a Mission Specialist Educator Astronaut with NASA.
Astronauts Steven Swanson and Joseph Acaba's second Spacewalk ends with mixed results
Spacewalk No. 2 ends with mixed results
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: March 21, 2009
Astronauts Steven Swanson and Joseph Acaba began repressurizing the Quest airlock module at 7:21 p.m., closing out a grueling six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk after running into problems deploying a balky cargo platform.
The astronauts successfully loosened a solar array battery pack as planned, however, attached a GPS antenna to a Japanese module and carried out a detailed photo-survey of the station's big radiator panels, all high-priority items.
Toward the end of the excursion, Swanson used tethers to tie down the balky unpressurized cargo carrier attachment system, or UCCAS, to prevent any inadvertent movement while engineers devise a way to lock it into place.
"Congratulations, guys. We sure appreciate the hard work you did for our beautiful space station," commander Mike Fincke radioed the spacewalkers from the outer airlock. "You guys proved that flexibility is definitely key. And a special congratulations to Joe. This was your first time out there, great job, my friend. So congratulations."
But time lost trying to fully deploy the UCCAS mechanism forced the spacewalkers to defer the deployment of another cargo platform on the right side of the station's solar power truss. Swanson also had problems disconnecting a cable from a patch panel on the zenith 1, or Z1, truss segment extending up from the Unity connecting module.
This was the 122nd spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998 and the second of three planned for Discovery's mission. Total space station EVA assembly time now stands at 768 hours and 33 minutes, or about 32 days.
