spacetoday.net: Stuck bolts may require additional ISS spacewalk

Posted: Sat, Sep 1, 2012, 9:05 AM ET (1305 GMT)
ISS EVA 2012 August 30 (NASA)

Stuck bolts for a new part of the International Space Station's power system prevented spacewalking astronauts from completing their planned tasks Thursday and may require a spacewalk as soon as next week. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide spent eight hours and 17 minutes outside the ISS Thursday to perform several tasks, including replacing a failed Main Bus Switching Unit on the station's truss. They removed the failed unit, but were unable to secure the replacement unit into place because of stuck bolts. They attached the unit temporarily to the truss using a tether while engineers work on alternative techniques to permanently attach the unit, which could require a spacewalk as soon as next week. The two were able to complete some other tasks during the EVA, including connecting a power cable that will be used by a future Russian lab module, but had to delay the replacement of a camera on the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm.