Discovery crew completes first spacewalk successfully
April 9th, 2010 - 11:56 pm ICT by BNO NewsINTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (BNO NEWS) – NASA announced on Friday that its Discovery crew members completed their first spacewalk.
Spacewalkers Rick Mastracchio and Clay Anderson completed a six-hour, 27-minute spacewalk at 7:58 a.m. EDT, finishing all their primary assignments, and even began other tasks ahead of time. The pair helped move a new 1,700-pound ammonia tank from Discovery’s cargo bay to a temporary parking place on the International Space Station.
In addition, the two astronauts retrieved an experiment from the Japanese Kibo Laboratory exposed facility and replaced a Rate Gyro Assembly on one of the truss segments.
Mission Specialist Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger choreographed the spacewalk from inside, coaching the spacewalkers through their tasks.
STS-131 has three spacewalks scheduled, and the first one of Discovery’s current mission marks the 234th conducted by U.S. astronauts. It also marks Mastracchio and Anderson second spacewalk together.
The duo will complete the replacement of a depleted ammonia tank on the station during the mission’s second and third spacewalks, scheduled for Sunday and Tuesday. Discovery will bring the depleted tank back to Earth to be refilled for subsequent return to the station.
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Tags: ammonia, astronauts, cargo bay, clay anderson, crew members, discovery crew, earth, international space station, kibo, metcalf, minute spacewalk, mission specialist, nasa, rate gyro, rick mastracchio, segments, spacewalks, tank