spacetoday.net: Second STS-111 spacewalk swiftly completed

Posted: Wed, Jun 12, 2002, 8:06 AM ET (1206 GMT)
STS-111 EVA #2 (NASA)

Two astronauts made the second spacewalk of the STS-111 mission on Tuesday, successfully completing their tasks faster than expected. Franklin Chang-Diaz and Philippe Perrin required only five hours to complete the installation of the new mobile base station (MBS) on the railcar that is part of the ISS's truss segment. The base station will allow the ISS's Canadarm2 robot arm to move up and down the truss on the railcar. The astronauts also moved a television camera to its final location on a mast above the MBS, and attached a bag with an extra extension cable to the side of the MBS. The spacewalk was completed one and a half hours faster than planned as the astronauts ran into no problems during their work. The two are scheduled to make their third and final EVA on Thursday to replace a faulty wrist joint on Canadarm2. At 10:19 pm EDT Tuesday (0219 GMT Wednesday) Expedition Four crew members Carl Walz and Dan Bursch set a new American space endurance record, breaking Shannon Lucid's record of 188 days in orbit.