Busy Shuttle flight marks successes

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They got a lot done, and this is encouraging for future progress on
the ISS, and then in future missions. By continuing to use robots,
advance robotics, in space, they can develop a useful technological
adjunct for human expansion and migration into other areas of our
Solar System.
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Two astronauts from the US shuttle Endeavour successfully completed a
fifth and final spacewalk of their mission late Saturday, stepping
into the void to attach a 50-foot sensory boom to the outside of the
International Space Station.
Mission specialists Robert Behnken and Mike Foreman began their
spacewalk at 4:34 pm EDT (2034 GMT), 49 minutes ahead of schedule, and
ended it at 9:36 pm (0236 GMT Sunday).

It was the last such trip before Endeavour's seven-man crew heads back
to Earth next week.

Mission Control in Houston, Texas, immediately declared the six-hour
walk a success.

"Today was another fantastic day. The crew is doing very well," space
station flight director Dana Weigel told reporters after the
astronauts had safety returned from their mission.

Weigel said the spacewalk, often referred to by National Aeronautics
and Space Administration officials as an EVA, or an extravehicular
activity, actually had set a new record.

"This was five EVAs, which was more than we've done on any station
mission," the flight director pointed out.

"We are all very excited how it all turned out," added Zebulon
Scoville, NASA's leading specialist on spacewalks.

The walkers successfully stowed away the Orbitor Boom Sensor System
(OBSS), a thick rod fitted with a camera and laser which is used to
check for damage to a shuttle's protective skin.

The OBSS made its maiden trip in 2005 on the first flight following
the Columbia disaster in 2003, when a crack in the shuttle's heat
shield caused the craft to explode while re-entering Earth, killing
the seven crew members on board.

An extension of the shuttle's robotic arm, the OBSS would normally
return to Earth at the end of each mission.

But the next flight, by the shuttle Discovery, will bring to the ISS
the second of three parts of Japan's space laboratory Kibo -- the
first of which was installed during the current mission -- and will
have no room for the boom.

Discovery's crew will detach the OBSS from the space station when they
arrive, use it to inspect their shuttle and then bring it home.

On Saturday's spacewalk, the ISS' robotic arm grabbed hold of the boom
to allow Behnken and Foreman to attach the cable that will power its
sensors and protect it from the elements.

The robot arm then handed the boom over to the astronauts, who stowed
it on a truss on the space station, guided by fellow crew member Rick
Linnehan from inside the ISS-Endeavour complex.

The spacewalkers also successfully installed an experiment on the
outside of the European Space Agency's laboratory, which the
astronauts had failed to complete during the third spacewalk on March
17.

Endeavour, whose mission at the ISS is the longest ever, is scheduled
to undock on Monday and return to Earth on Wednesday.

The mission's main tasks were to install the first part of the
Japanese Kibo lab, which will join similar facilities from the United
States, Russia and the EU, whose Colombus lab was delivered to the ISS
in February.

It has also assembled the Canadian-made Dextre robot, which is
designed to undertake maintenance operations on the space station that
until now required a human touch, and reduce the need for risky
spacewalks.

The robot's human-like upper torso swivels at the waist, and its arms
were designed with seven joints to provide it with maximum
versatility. Umbilical connectors provide power and data connectivity.

NASA wants to complete construction of the ISS by 2010, when its three-
shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired.

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