Spacewalker Dave Wolf is manhandling the last of three large spares to be stowed outside the International Space Station as he and crewmate Tom Marshburn head into the home stretch of a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk.
Anchored to the end of the station's 57-foot robot arm, Wolf is hauling a boxy drive system for an outpost rail cart to an external stowage platform on the port side of the station's central truss.
Marshburn is assisting as the two start to wrap up the second of five spacewalks planned during Endeavour's visit to the outpost.
The astronauts are running about 45 minutes before schedule, so flight controllers are deciding how best to use time remaining outside the station.
Wolf and Marshburn had planned to install the first of two television cameras on the back porch of the Japanese Kibo science research facility. The cameras will play a critical role in both normal operations -- swapping payloads on the porch -- and monitoring the arrivals and departures of robotic Japanese space freighters. The first of those HTVs is to make a debut docking in September.
For now Wolf and Marshburn are transferring a Linear Drive Unit -- a drive system for the station's Mobile Transporter rail cart.
The cart runs along rails on the top of the station's central truss and can move the outpost's robotic arm and the two-armed Canadian robot Dextre to different work sites along the rail.
The cargo carrier used to haul the drive system and other spare parts to the station now is temporarily stowed on top of the cart.
The spare drive system, built by Northrup Grumman, weighs about 255 pounds and measures approximately 4 feet wide by 3 feet high, and 2 feet in depth. Like the other spares the spacewalkers have worked with today, it will be stored on an external stowage platform on the port side of the station's truss.
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