Blogger update, 12:58 p.m.: The hatch is open and the spacewalk has begun. An International Space Station hatch is being depressurized as two Endeavour astronauts prepare to start the second of four planned mission spacewalks any minute, about an hour ahead of schedule.
Rookie astronaut Shane Kimbrough is joining Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper on her second spacewalk of the mission.
The spacewalk officially begins when they astronauts switch their spacesuits on to internal power. Then they'll exit a hatch and step into space more than 200 miles above Earth.
You can watch the whole spacewalk unfold here at The Flame Trench. Click on the NASA TV viewer above to launch a viewer.
Inside, mission commander Chris Ferguson - or Fergie, as his crewmates call him - and Greg Chamitoff have been helping the spacewalkers get ready.
Pilot Eric Boe is choreographing the spacewalk today.
Mission specialist Don Pettit is preparing to manipulate the Canadian-made robotic arm, which Kimbrough will ride as he relocates two carts from oned side of the station to the other.
Sandra Magnus, a flight officer for Expedition 18, is hooking up a system that will test the first water samples from a new water recycling system that expedition commander Mike Fincke is still installing.
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