Posted: Sun, Apr 22, 2001, 6:56 PM ET (2256 GMT)
Two astronauts successfully installed a Canadian-built robotic arm on the exterior of the International Space Station during a spacewalk Sunday. The primary purpose of the spacewalk by Chris Hadfield and Scott Parazynski was to help install the robotic arm, stowed inside a Spacelab pallet attached to the station's Destiny module by the shuttle's robot arm just before the spacewalk began. The astronauts were able to unfasten and deploy the arm with only minor difficulty during the seven hour, 10 minute spacewalk. Shortly after the spacewalk concluded the arm moved for the first time under its own power, controlled by the space station crew into a temporary park position. The arm will move off the pallet Monday and later hand the pallet to the shuttle's robot arm for return to Earth. Hadfield and Parazynski also installed a UHF antenna on the station that will be used for communications between the station and approaching shuttles. The spacewalk was the second for Parazynski and the first for Hadfield, who became the first Canadian to perform a spacewalk. The two will perform the second of two spacewalks scheduled for the STS-100 mission on Tuesday.

Related Links:

•  spaceflight.nasa.gov mission information