The fourth spacewalk of shuttle Discovery's mission to the International Space Station is under way.
Discovery mission specialists Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock switched their spacesuits to battery power at 6:03 a.m. EDT, marking the official start time of a high-stakes bid to repair a torn solar blanket at the outpost.
"Go out there and fix that thing for us," station commander Peggy Whitson said.
"We will," Parazynski replied.
The first order of business will be double-checking safety tethers and gathering up tools. Parazynski then will mount a makeshift work scaffold for a nine-story hoist up to the torn array. Wheelock will crawl hand-over-hand to the base of the array and provide verbal cues to crane operators who cannot eyeball the work site from inside the U.S. Destiny lab.
Parazynski is answering to the radio call sign "EV-1" and is wearing a spacesuit with broken red stripes. Wheelock is "EV-2" and has an all-white spacesuit.
Station flight engineer Dan Tani and Discovery mission specialist Stephanie Wilson will operate the work platform -- an orbital inspection boom linked to the station's 57.5-foot robot arm.
Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli is directing the spacewalk from the flight deck of Discovery.
NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, who helped develop the spacewalking repair plan, is in the CAPCOM seat in Mission Control. He'll be the one communicating with the astronauts from Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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