Posted: Wed, Feb 20, 2002, 6:37 PM ET (2337 GMT)
Two American astronauts conducted a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday. Carl Walz and Dan Bursch spent five hours and 47 minutes outside the station during the EVA, which began at 6:38 am EST (1138 GMT). The spacewalk was primarily designed to set the stage for four spacewalks scheduled for the STS-110 shuttle mission in April, when astronauts will install the first segment of the station’s truss. Walz and Bursch deployed two electrical cables and stowed a set of tools that will be used on the STS-110 EVAs inside the Quest airlock module. The spacewalkers also removed adapters from a Russian Strela cargo crane attached to the station, and photographed a materials exposure experiment on the station’s exterior. The spacewalk was judged to be a success by mission controllers. The spacewalk was the third by the Expedition Four crew and the first EVA to be conducted from the Quest airlock module without a shuttle present. Walz and Bursch used a new oxygen/exercise protocol to purge nitrogen from the their bloodstreams while in Quest, the same technique the STS-110 astronauts plan to use. After the EVA the Expedition Four crew talked with NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe and John Glenn on the 40th anniversary of the first American manned orbital mission by Glenn.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  Spaceflight Now mission status center
•  NASA/JSC ISS status report #02-10