Endeavour astronauts Bob Behnken and Nick Patrick have begun the second of three spacewalks planned during the shuttle's visit to the International Space Station, an effort to begin activating the recently installed Tranquility module. Inside the station's Quest airlock, the pair switched their spacesuits to battery power at 9:20 p.m. EST to begin their second excursion together, expected to last six hours and 30 minutes.
"Have a great (spacewalk) and we will see you all in a few hours," radioed Endeavour commander George Zamka. Behnken, the lead spacewalker with radio call sign "EV-1", is wearing a suit with red stripes on the legs. His helmet camera will show No. 16 in the lower right corner.
Patrick, "EV-2," is wearing an all-white suit. His helmet camera shows No. 18.
The spacewalk is Behken's fifth, Patrick's second. The helped prepare Tranquility for installation during a six-hour, 32-minute spacewalk that began Thursday night.
Their primary task is to route four ammonia hoses that will connect Tranquility to the station's cooling system, so the module's heat-generating electronics can be activated and their heat dissipated. One of two separate loops will be turned on.
They'll also wrap the hoses in a protective insulating blanket.
The 16-foot hoses nearly forced a delay to the mission. After some of the original batch of hoses failed pre-flight pressure tests, NASA scrambled to design a new set from smaller pieces that were readied in time for the planned Feb. 7 launch.
Mission managers have changed the timeline for some work that was to begin early Sunday to ready the seven-windowed cupola for relocation from Tranquility's end to its Earth-facing port.
The seven-windowed cupola will not be depressurized and grappled by the station's robotic arm.
An obstruction kept the crew from installing a protective disk in the hatch now occupied by the cupola.
Station commander Jeff Williams is attempting to move two of eight non-captive bolts that may be causing the obstruction.
There is no indication yet that the problem will delay Sunday evening's planned relocation of the cupola.
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