Fri, Jun 02, 2006
Spacewalk Extended, But Tee Time Postponed
ANN REAL TIME NEWS: 0545 EDT -- Both crewmen aboard the
International Space Station got to spend a bit more time outside
the vehicle, continuing a spacewalk aimed at performing several
maintenance procedures.
The six-hour EVA was marred only by the loss of a foot-restraint
adaptor -- a 12-inch metal strap designed to hold a crewmember to
the 50-foot Russian-made telescoping boom used during Friday's
repairs.
We have a problem," station commander Pavel Vinogradov told the
Russian flight control team. "We have the foot restraint
gone. It was in the closed position. We don't understand it. That's
bad."
Regardless of the loss, Vinogradov and Expedition 13 engineer
Jeffrey Williams continued their tasks, which included installing a
new vent port for the ISS's malfunctioning oxygen generator,
inspecting several antennae around the space station, and moving a
cable thought to have been interfering with radio transmissions to
and from the ISS.
As the clock ran out, there was a brief discussion between the
spacewalkers and controllers about whether to drop the final task
-- the replacement of a camera vital to the installation of future
ISS components. In the end, however, the spacewalk was
extended.
It was indeed a long EVA, but certainly not the longest. That
record goes to another ISS crew, which, back in 2001, ventured
outside the station for almost nine hours.
But even given the length of the event, there was no golfing.
Commander Vinogradov was supposed to have pulled out a six-iron and
hit a gold-plated golf ball from a specially-constructed tee-box
during this spacewalk. It was part of a paid-for publicity stunt on
behalf of a Canadian sporting goods company. But concerns about
where the longest golf shot in history might actually land caused
both Russian and American space officials to postpone the stunt
while the considered the ramifications.
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