Third Spacewalk Goes Off Without A Hitch - Almost
CAPE CANAVERAL (CBS4) – An "itchy" situation almost caused two of Endeavour's astronauts to "scratch" their third spacewalk.
Astronauts Andrew Feustel and Mike Fincke were connecting power cables from the American half of the International Space Station to the Russian half, when Feustel's eye started stinging "like crazy".
"Just as an FYI, my right eye is stinging like crazy right now. It's watering a lot. Must have gotten something in it," Feustel told Fincke.
Astronauts aboard the shuttle assured the pair that they were "close to home," near the hatch, should they need to halt the mission.
After a few moments of discomfort, Feustel was able to relieve the problem by rubbing his eye against a strap in his helmet. The two continued with the mission, which they completed successfully.
Up until that point, everything had been going smoothly; a welcome change from the multiple glitches they had encountered during the two previous missions. Late last week the astronauts were forced to stop working early after problems with a space suit. During a second spacewalk on Sunday, multiple loose bolts posed a frustrating challenge to the astronauts.
Aside from setting up the power cables, which will provide a back up energy source for the Russian part of the station, Feustel and Fincke also added a grapple fixture to the station's robotic arm and moved it to the original Russian compartment launched in 1998. They also tied up other odds and ends left from the first unfinished spacewalk.
Endeavour's crew has one more spacewalk left before it returns to Earth for the last time. After its estimated landing date on June 1st, the Atlantis will take the final flight of NASA's 30-year shuttle program.
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