Discovery space walkers in push to complete ISS

A pair of Discovery space walkers readied a GPS antenna and other equipment for the International Space Station Saturday, in a final push to complete the decade-long construction of the orbiting outpost.

Astronauts Steve Swanson and Joseph Acaba began their walk at 1651 GMT as the station orbited 220 miles 354 kilometers above the south Pacific Ocean.

Only minutes behind schedule, the pair were on the second of three space walks by the space shuttle Discovery mission.

After huge solar wings were successfully unfurled Friday on the ISS, paving the way for the orbiting laboratory to power up to its full capacity for the first time, Swanson and Acaba were tasked with preparing batteries on the external Port 6 truss for their replacement on a later mission in June.

During their walk expected to last six hours and 30 minutes, the two astronauts were unable to deploy an unpressurized cargo carrier attachment system UCCAS -- for storing equipment and supplies outside the ISS -- on the Port 3 truss.

The task would be completed at a later date, according to the US space agency NASA.

The spacewalkers also began to install a GPS antenna on the station's Japanese module and photograph radiators on other truss segments.

The GPS device will help guide the Japanese HTV robotic spacecraft, a cargo transfer vehicle to be put into operation later this year.

The autonomous craft will supply the station's Kibo laboratory with water, food and scientific materials, and could also resupply the rest of the station if needed.

Inside the ISS, a new system that purifies urine and other wastewater for drinking and other purposes was put through a "dry spinning" test run, and ISS Commander Mike Fincke reported it was quieter than the failed unit.

Discovery's latest mission, which blasted off Sunday from Florida with a crew of seven astronauts, is one of the last major tasks in a decade-long push by 16 countries to build the 100-billion-dollar outpost in space.

Discovery crewmember Koichi Wakata became the first Japanese astronaut to join the ISS for a long stay. He is scheduled to remain on the orbiting station until June.

NASA said Friday that "no difficulties were encountered" in deploying the station's massive solar wings, after Swanson and colleague Richard Arnold had a day earlier bolted an S6 truss to hold external panels forming the fourth and last solar antenna.

A third space walk has been planned for Monday.

Once activated, the solar array -- capturing sunlight to convert it into energy -- will be able to generate a substantial amount of usable electricity, enough to power about 42 large homes.

The 14-tonne S6 truss was carried by the shuttle from Earth and the orbiter's robotic arm was used to lift it out of the shuttle's bay.

Each solar array set has two wings measuring 115 feet 35 meters wide by 38 feet 11.58 meters, for a total span of 240 feet 73 meters, including the truss connecting the two panels and allowing them to pivot as they follow the sun.

It has been a near picture-perfect mission so far, barring the delayed lift-off and some pesky space rubble that had US and Russian experts braced for an "avoidance maneuver" to move the ISS.







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