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Astronauts stage final spacewalk

PHOTO: AFP

Crew members of the shuttle Atlantis and International Space Station at a joint press conference in the Destiny Laboratory of the station on Saturday.

ouston: Two U.S. astronauts commenced the fourth and final spacewalk of the Atlantis mission on Monday after the shuttle got the green signal to return to earth next week, bringing back Indian-American Sunita Williams who set a record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman. Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson are scheduled to tackle a number of tasks, including work to prepare the International Space Station’s new truss segment for operation, so as to allow a new solar array to track the sun and help generate power.

The two also planned to install a camera, a debris shield and a computer network cable between the U.S. and Russian sides of the space station and remove a Global Positioning System antenna during the planned six-and-a-half hour spacewalk.

“The spacewalkers will verify installation of a drive lock assembly, one of two mechanisms that will drive rotation of the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint [SARJ] and remove the final launch restraints on the SARJ,” NASA said.

The spacewalk began as Russian computers that control the ISS’ ability to orient itself and produce oxygen The computer glitch added to the NASA’s concern over the damage to the shuttle’s thermal protection system during launch.— PTI

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