Posted: Tue, Mar 13, 2001, 11:27 AM ET (1627 GMT)
Astronauts Paul Richards and Andy Thomas successfully completed a six-hour spacewalk outside the shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station early Tuesday. The astronauts started the spacewalk, the second of two scheduled for the STS-102 mission, at 12:23 am EST (0523 GMT) Tuesday. They performed a variety of tasks outside the space station, including completing the installation of power and data cables that will link the Destiny module to a Canadian robotic arm to be installed during a shuttle mission next month: the installation was started during the first spacewalk early Sunday but not completed when the EVA fell behind schedule. The spacewalkers also installed a platform for storing extra station parts as well as a space coolant pump. They also fixed a latch on a solar panel assembly added last December that failed to lock into place properly, and confirmed that an experiment designed to measure the electrical potential environment outside the station was not working as intended. The spacewalk officially concluded at 6:44 am EST (1144 GMT). The crew of the shuttle and ISS will now concentrate on completing the transfer of equipment and supplies from the Leonardo cargo module, as well as complete the ISS crew transfer.
