Posted: Sun, Jul 9, 2006, 11:51 AM ET (1551 GMT)
Two shuttle astronauts successfully performed a spacewalk Saturday, testing a boom that can be used to inspect and repair the shuttle. Astronauts Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers spent seven and a half hours outside the shuttle and station Saturday, starting at 9:17 am EDT (1317 GMT). The primary purpose of the EVA was to test the use of a 30-meter boom attached to the shuttle's robot arm as a platform for astronauts to use to visit otherwise inaccessible portions of the orbiter to look for and repair any damage to tiles and panels. The spacewalkers also performed some preparatory work for a second EVA on Monday when the same astronauts will repair part of the mobile "railcar" that runs along the station's truss. Shuttle managers are expected to decide Sunday whether a pair of protruding gapfillers on the underside of Discovery should be removed in a third spacewalk later this week.
