By Irene Klotz
HOUSTON (Reuters) -- Spacewalking astronauts stashed aninspection boom to the outside of the International SpaceStation on Saturday to assure the next shuttle crew canscrutinize their ship for damage.
Typically, crews carry their own inspection gear to andfrom orbit, but the next load coming up to the station is sobig there is no room in the shuttle for the sensor-studded50-foot (15-metre) boom needed to check for heat shield damage.
Instead, the shuttle Discovery crew, which is expected toblast off on May 25 with Japan's 37-foot-long (11-metre-long)Kibo laboratory, will retrieve the boom from its temporarystorage location on the outside of the station.
NASA has been flying the scanners since resuming flightsafter the fatal 2003 Columbia accident, which was triggered byundetected damage to the ship's wing.
Latching the boom to the outside of the station was theprimary task of the fifth and final spacewalk conducted by theshuttle Endeavour crew, which arrived at the station on March12.
During previous outings, astronauts installed a storagecloset for Japan's Kibo complex and assembled a Canadian-builtmaintenance robot.
"I think you guys did a fantastic job and did even morethan we expected out of the day," astronaut Richard Linnehan,who oversaw Saturday's spacewalk from inside Endeavour, toldcrewmates Robert Behnken and Michael Foreman, who wrapped up asix-hour outing at about 10:30 p.m. EDT (2:30 a.m. on SundayBritish time).
KEEPING SENSORS WARM
Working well ahead of schedule throughout the spacewalk,Behnken and Foreman hooked up a power cord to keep the boom'sdelicate sensors warm during the planned two-month stay inorbit and then latched the ends of the pole into place along apiece of the station's truss.
After the beam slipped into position, the spacewalkerssplit up to tackle a handful of maintenance chores, includingpinning a science experiment onto a fixture outside Europe'sColumbus module. Astronauts had tried to attach thebriefcase-sized experiment case during a spacewalk on Mondaybut were stymied by a misfit pin.
Behnken used a small hammer to knock the pins in place.
While Behnken worked with the science experiment, Foremaninspected a contaminated joint needed to rotate one of thestation's solar panel wings. NASA last year discovered metalshavings inside the mechanism and is trying to trace the sourceof the contamination.
The wing has been locked in position to avoid damaging thejoint further.
Foreman found rough patches, but no obvious sign of anorbital debris impact, which is one possible cause of theproblem.
The power lost by clipping the wing in place, whichprevents is from tracking the sun for power, is not expected toaffect station operations until next year when the crew size isscheduled to double to six members. NASA hopes to fix theproblem well before then.
The space agency has 10 more construction and resupplyflights to the station before the shuttles are retired in twoyears. A final mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescopelater this year also is scheduled.
Endeavour is scheduled to end its 16-day spaceflight with alanding at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
