Two spacewalkers have completed the first and highest priority task of their day working on the International Space Station. Mission specialists Danny Olivas and Christer Fuglesang deployed a platform that will hold a spare parts carrier that is needed by the next shuttle mission, planned in November.
The job involved unbolting structural braces on a section of the station's central truss, on the right side. Crews inside the station were asked not to do any exercise that would cause excessive vibration while the work proceeded.
The platform (tiny diagram at left) was deployed and locked into place, similar to the way an airline tray table would swing down, a NASA TV commentator said. The mechanism, and another on the left side of the truss, will hold carriers containing large spare parts.
The parts will be critical to keeping the station running after the space shuttle retires, when it will become more difficult to ship parts up and down for repair or replacement.
The next task, at the center of the station's truss, is to replace a box holding gyroscope sensors that help keep the station pointing at the proper angles as it orbits.
Today's spacewalk - the third and last of shuttle Discovery's mission - began at 4:39 p.m. and is running about 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
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