Astronauts Complete Final Spacewalk of STS-127 Mission

(PhysOrg.com) -- The joint crew of Endeavour and the International Space Station completed the fifth and final spacewalk of the mission.

Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn completed the spacewalk at 12:27 p.m EDT. The primary objective of the spacewalk was to install two cameras on Japan’s Kibo laboratory that will provide views to help with rendezvous and berthing of the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). The HTV is scheduled to make its first deliveries to the station in September.

The four-hour, 54-minute spacewalk also included an electrical cable swap and adjustment of insulation blankets on the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. The spacewalkers performed a number of “get ahead” tasks, including tying down some cables and installing handrails and a portable foot restraint to aid future spacewalkers. The deployment of the Payload Attach System on the Starboard 3 truss was deferred to another spacewalk sometime in the future.

Inside the complex, Commander Mark Polansky and Mission Specialist Dave Wolf supported the spacewalkers, and Pilot Doug Hurley continued cargo transfers.

Expedition 20 Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Tim Kopra will work on several scientific experiments, and departing station crew member Koichi Wakata will continue handovers with Kopra, the newest station crew member. Flight engineer Bob Thirsk will install brackets that will allow the new C.O.L.B.E.R.T., or the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, to be set up in the station’s Harmony module when it is delivered on the STS-128 shuttle mission.

Provided by JPL/NASA (news : web)