Peggy Whitson helps spacewalkers out of their suits
Schlegel and Walheim
Hans and Rex bring it home
Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel, having made up lost time, returned to the airlock nearly on schedule in the 6.5-hour spacewalk. Repressurization of the airlock has begun.
"Rex and Hans, you did a great job today," said robot arm operator Leland Melvin.
"Thank you, Leland, for making it possible," replied Schlegel.
Walheim completed his fourth spacewalk, while Schlegel finished his first and likely only spacewalk. He was denied a spacewalk Monday, when an undisclosed illness caused flight surgeons to remove him from the work detail outside the space station.
The 56-year-old German said in an interview before the mission that this would be his last chance to fly in space. He participated in a shuttle mission 15 years ago and has worked as a physicist in the space program since.
Schlegel and Walheim 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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