Schlegel and Walheim
Airlock open, spacewalkers heading outside
Spacewalkers Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel opened the crew airlock and had their first view of outer space, where they will work in orbit for the next 6.5 hours.
The pair switched to battery power on their spacesuits starting the spacewalk about 9:27 a.m. EST.
Walheim temporarily lost communication when he switched to battery.
"I seem to have (communication) back," he said quickly.
The pair will install a nitrogen tank assembly on the P-1 truss and bring the old tank back to the payload bay for return to Earth. Mission Control has lined up several get ahead tasks if the pair finishes the tank installation early.
This is Walheim's fourth spacewalk. Schlegel missed his first spacewalk Monday due a medical condition that NASA would not disclose. He has recovered.
We'll have live coverage here this morning. Stay tuned.
Click for interactive graphic on Columbus installation.
Click for STS-122 fact sheet.
Click for NASA-TV schedule, which details mission events.
The nitrogen tank assembly (NTA) sits in the payload bay beneath two European experiments, SOLAR and EUTEF. The spacewalkers will return the old tank to the payload bay.
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