International - Globescan   

Space station gyroscope replaced

HOUSTON: Two astronauts aboard the Discovery shuttle on Monday stepped out for a second spacewalk to replace a faulty gyroscope equipment needed to maintain the International Space Station's position. American astronaut Stephen Robinson and Japanese Soichi Noguchi moved into Discovery's airlock wearing bulky space suits and switched on their autonomous electrical batteries. The process formally marked the beginning of the second spacewalk. The two will spend 6 1/2-hours exchanging the broken down 660-pound Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) No. 1 on the International Space Station, which failed in 2002, with a new one. It is one of four CMGs that provide attitude control to the Station. Four large gyroscopes, spinning in complementary fashion at 6,600 revolutions-per-minute, keep the space station from tumbling out of control. They're largely powered by solar energy.

PTI

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