Spacewalking astronauts Clay Anderson and Dave Williams are crawling hand-over-hand around the exterior of the International Space Station, giving flight controllers and armchair astronauts an up-close look through small cameras on their helmets.
A faint No. 16 in the bottom righthand corner of the NASA TV image indicates that the view is beaming beamed back through the helmet-cam of Williams.
Equipped with a pistol-grip power tool that operates like a high-tech ratchet wrench, Williams is trying to screw down bolts on a radio communications antenna assembly mounted to the Z-1 truss atop the U.S. Destiny laboratory.
Only the third Canadian to walk in space, Williams is having trouble with the bolts, which are associated with gimbal locks on the antenna assembly. Spacewalkers on an assembly mission last September had the same problem.
Anderson's helmet-cam is beaming back images with a faint No. 18 in the bottom righthand corner of the NASA TV image. Anderson is retrieving two suitcase-sized space science experiments mounted on the outer hull of the Quest airlock.
The job was supposed to be done on the third spacecwalk of the mission, but the excursion was cut short when a small hole was spotted on the thumb of one of the spacesuit gloves worn by Endeavour mission specialist Rock Mastracchio.
The experiment packages contain samples of paints, coatings and other materials that might be used on future spacecraft. The idea is to expose the materials to the space environment, where atomic oxygen tends to cause corrosion.
The packages are the fourth and fifth in a series of materials science experiments. They were mounted to the exterior of the airlock in August 2006 by U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and will be returned to Earth in a Spacehab logistics module in shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay.
The astronauts also mounted a stand for an Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) extension on the exterior of the station. The stand will be used to hold one of the sensor-laden booms, which are used to inspect shuttle heat-shield components for any damage from launch or micrometeorite debris.
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