Walheim waves during Wednesday's spacewalk
Schlegel and Walheim
Mission extended by another day
NASA managers announced that the mission would be extended by a second day. After 13 days in space, Atlantis is scheduled to land Feb. 20 at 9:06 a.m. EST at Kennedy Space Center. The extra day allows Columbus experts Leo Eyharts and Hans Schlegel more time to activate the European laboratory. Mission controllers have had difficulty activating computers in the Columbus module, which was installed Monday and opened Tuesday. The computer software problem is now fixed.
Atlantis Commander Steve Frick welcomed the extension: "Great news. Certainly, we look forward to another day on the space station. We're happy to do whatever works best for the folks on the space station."
Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel made the 103rd spacewalk for construction of the International Space Station. A total EVA time of 646 hours and 18 minutes has been spent building the ISS.
Lasting 6 hours and 45 minutes, the spacewalk ended at 4:12 p.m. EST.
Schlegel made his first spacewalk.
However, Walheim made his fourth spacewalk, giving him a total EVA time of 28 hours and 58 minutes.
Schlegel and Walheim today replaced a nitrogen tank that pressurizes the station's ammonia cooling system.
Click for interactive graphic on Columbus installation.
Click for flight day 7 execute package.
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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