spacetoday.net: Third STS-118 spacewalk ends early

Posted: Thu, Aug 16, 2007, 8:26 AM ET (1226 GMT)
STS-118: EVA #3 (NASA)

The third spacewalk of the STS-118 shuttle mission ended earlier than scheduled on Wednesday after one of the spacewalking astronauts noticed minor damage to one of his gloves. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio, performing a routine check of his gloves, noticed a small hole in the outer layer of his left glove, prompting mission controllers to order him back to the station's airlock. The damage did not put Mastracchio in jeopardy, but mission rules required him to return to the airlock. NASA instituted regular inspections of spacesuit gloves after damage was noticed on another glove during an EVA last year. The five-and-a-half spacewalk was in its final stages at the time the damage was seen; Mastracchio and ISS astronaut Clay Anderson had already performed all the major tasks, including work on the P6 truss segment to prepare it for a move to the end of the port side of the station's truss on a future mission. One task, the retrieval of two space exposure experiments, was postponed for a future mission. An additional spacewalk to repair tile damage on the underside of Endeavour may be performed later in the mission; a decision on whether to undertake any repairs has been postponed to Thursday.