Working in orbital darkness, spacewalkers Peggy Whitson and Dan Tani removed a broken solar wing motor drive from the central truss of the International Space Station and eased a spare into place.
But they'll have to wait about a hour -- until the station circles back around to the dark side of Earth -- before rigging up a primary electrical cable that routes power from the station's starboard solar wing through the motor and ultimately to station systems.
The solar wing generates about 160 volts in daylight, and the astronauts are being careful to avoid electrical shock. So the cable connection will be done once the station swings around into orbital darkness again.
Meanwhile, the astronauts will bolt the broken motor drive into a canister so it can be hauled back to the U.S. Quest airlock.
You can check out the step-by-step procedures the astronauts are following here: Spacewalk Timeline.
And you can watch the action unfold here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the link below the image above to launch our NASA TV viewer and refresh this page for periodic updates.
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