Live in orbit: Spacewalkers inside ISS; the numbers

Walheim and Love

Spacewalkers deliver three big packages, work overtime


In a spacewalk that went nearly an hour over its allotted time, Rex Walheim and Stan Love have returned to the space station and are returning to normal pressure.

"Let me know if you need me to slow down how fast we repressurize," said space station commander Peggy Whitson.

The numbers:

The spacewalk lasted seven hours and 25 minutes.

Total spacewalking time during STS-122 was 22 hours and eight minutes.

On his fourth spacewalk, Walheim has 36 hours and 23 minutes walking in space.

On his second spacewalk, Love has 15 hours and 23 minutes walking in space.

This was the 104th spacewalk for ISS construction.

A total of 653 hours and 43 minutes have been spent spacewalking to build and maintain the space station.

Love and Walheim did not have time during the spacewalk to photograph the damaged solar array rotary joint at the end of the space station's starboard truss, a get-ahead task reserved in case the scheduled tasks were finished early.

Love, however, did have time to photograph "the Love Crater," a rough area on a handrail near the entrance to the crew airlock. The astronauts rubbed an overglove on the crater to see if it is the cause of damage to several spacewalker's gloves.

The flaw got its name because it was spotted Monday by astronomer Love on his first spacewalk.

During the last phase of the spacewalk, the pair was coached by legendary spacewalker Jerry Ross.

"OK Dex, (Pilot Alan Poindexter) I think we're in. We've got the thermal cover," said Walheim at 3:20 p.m. EST, when the spacewalk has lasted seven hours and 45 minutes.

"Thanks Rex, I'll see you in a few minutes," said Poindexter.

"Stan, you wanna see if that hatch'll close," said ISS Commander Peggy Whitson.

During the day, the pair the installed two European science modules on the Columbus laboratory and moved a 1,200-pound gyroscope into the payload bay for return to Earth and refurbishment.

EuTEF (European Technology Exposure Facility) carries nine space exposure experiments. Additionally, they installed a solar observatory and relocated a failed gyroscope to the shuttle's payload bay.

Love's glove was slightly damaged, but he was given permission to continue working.

The spacewalk officially began when the pair switched their spacesuits to battery power at 8:07 a.m. EST. Walheim's helmet camera is No. 18, while his spacesuit has an unbroken line. Love's camera is No. 16, while his spacesuit has a broken line.

If the 6.5-hour spacewalk runs ahead of schedule, Walheim and Love will have several additional tasks: inspecting the starboard solar alpha rotary joint and inspecting damage to a handrail that might be causing glove damage.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at 9:06 a.m. Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center, shortly before the Navy shoots down a low-orbiting, non-functioning spy satellite that carries a toxic half-ton of hydrazine rocket fuel.

Click for interactive graphic on Columbus installation.

Click for flight day 9 execute package.

Click for STS-122 fact sheet.

Click for NASA-TV schedule, which details mission events.















The SOLAR and EuTEF modules sit on a rack in the shuttle's payload bay.