Spacewalk ends; NASA mulls early departure

Two astronauts just wrapped up an abbrievated spacewalk outside the International Space Station as NASA managers mulled over the possibility to sending shuttle Endeavour back to Earth early to avoid any threat from Hurricane Dean.

Huddling at Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA's Mission Management Team is reviewing a 2 p.m. update from the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which shows the projected course of Dean shifting slightly to the north -- or closer to the agency's Mission Control Center in Houston.

Now a Category 4 storm, Dean was centered about 505 miles east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 175 miles south-southeast of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, at 2 p.m.

The storm was moving west at 17 mph and had maximum sustained winds near 150 mph. Forecasters said sustained winds could strengthen into a Category 5 storm by the time Dean makes landfall next Thursday in the northeast part of Mexico.

Clicn to enlarge the 2 p.m. update:
















Originally planned to last 6.5 hours, the five-hour, two-minute spacewalk was shortened so that the Endeavour crew could finish hauling supplies, equipment and refuse between a Spacehab module in the shuttle's cargo bay and the station.

The spacewalk was the 92nd done during the assembly of the station, which began with the launch in late 1998 of two initial building blocks. Total spacewalk time tallied now stands at 567 hours and 59 minutes.

Sixty-four of those excursions have been staged from either the U.S. Quest or Russian Pirs airlocks at the station. The remainder have been conducted from the airlocks of visiting shuttles.

The spacewalk was the fourth and final excursion scheduled during Endeavour's stay at the station. A total of 23 hours and 15 minutes of spacewalking work was tallied during those outings.

Williams now holds the record for the most spacewalks for a Canadian: three. He now has logged 17 hours and 47 minutes in the void.

Anderson performed two spacewalks with the Endeavour crew and now has performed a total of three spacewalks. He's accumulated 18 hours and 11 minutes working outside the station.

Mission specialist Rick Mastracchio performed three of the spacewalks, chalking up 18 hours and 13 minutes of spacewalking time.

The shuttle and station crews will gather in the U.S. Destiny lab around 4:46 p.m. to say farewell, and hatches between the spacecraft will be closed at 5 p.m.

NASA mission managers will outline the go-forward plan during a news briefing that is tentatively scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

You can watch the briefing or mission operations by clicking the link below the Mission Webcast headline. Start-up time: about 20 seconds.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the NASA screen grab (top). It shows Endeavour mission commander Scott Kelly floating into the U.S. Quest airlock at the International Space Station, where he helped Clay Anderson (left) and Dave Williams (right) doff spacesuits after a five-hour, two-minute excursion outside the outpost.