Mar 23 2009
From The Space Library
Former science teachers and rookie NASA astronauts Richard R. Arnold II and Joseph M. Acaba undertook the third and final spacewalk of STS-119 at the ISS. The spacewalk, which lasted nearly 6.5 hours, was the second spacewalk for both astronauts, their first spacewalk together, and their first without Steven R. Swanson. One of their priority tasks was to free the pin that had prevented Swanson and Acaba from deploying an equipment-storage platform during the previous spacewalk on 21 March. Arnold managed to free the pin, but the platform remained stuck. Mission Control ordered them to use four straps to secure the partially deployed platform to the port side of the ISS’s central truss and then to move on to other tasks. Acaba, riding on the end of the ISS’s robotic arm, moved a rail cart from one side of the station’s central truss to the other, in preparation for future assembly and maintenance work. Arnold and Acaba also performed maintenance work on the robotic arm, including lubricating the grappling end of the arm with grease.
Houston Chronicle, “Spacewalkers Leave One Item for Next Team,” 24 March 2009; Todd Halvorson, “Platform Causes Trouble in Space,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 24 March 2009; Tariq Malik, “Space Teachers Team Up in Spacewalk,” Space.com, 23 March 2009, http://www.space.com/6478-space-teachers-team-spacewalk.html (accessed 13 May 2011).
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