Atlantis: Last spacewalk of US shuttle era ends

WASHINGTON: Two US astronauts wrapped up the last spacewalk of the shuttle era on Tuesday at the International Space Station, where Atlantis is docked on the final mission of the 30-year US programme. Americans Ron Garan and Mike Fossum, who were already aboard the ISS as part of the six-member international Expedition 28 crew when Atlantis arrived on Sunday, successfully completed their repair and maintenance tasks at the lab. The main objective – of retrieving a failed ammonia pump from the orbiting outpost and placing it into the shuttle’s payload for return to Earth – was tackled early in the six hour, 31 minute spacewalk. The duo then turned their efforts toward attaching a Robotic Refueling Module experiment to the lab. The joint US-Canadian project aims to test technologies for repairing and refueling satellites in space. The Atlantis crew of four American astronauts helped support the spacewalk, which was choreographed by mission specialist Rex Walheim and formally ended at 3:53 pm (1953 GMT).

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2011.