spacetoday.net: Second ISS spacewalk a partial success

Posted: Sun, Mar 22, 2009, 10:21 AM ET (1421 GMT)
STS-119: EVA #2 (NASA)

Two astronauts performed the second spacewalk of the STS-119 shuttle mission on Saturday, but were not able to accomplish all the tasks planned for the EVA. Steven Swanson and Joseph Acaba spent six and a half hours outside the station during an EVA that started at 12:51 pm EDT (1651 GMT) and completed a number of high priority tasks, including preparing a worksite for the installation of batteries that will be brought to the station on a future shuttle mission, as well as the installation of a GPS antenna on the exterior of the Kibo module. However, the spacewalkers ran into problems when they tried to unstow a cargo carrier attachment system on a section of the station's truss. During the deployment of the carrier astronauts put a locking pin in place the wrong way, keeping the carrier from properly deploying, and were unable to free it and install it properly. Another effort to remove the pin and reinstall it properly may be made on a third EVA scheduled for Monday, along with work to rewire circuit breakers for the station's gyros that was deferred from Saturday when time ran out.