NASA astronauts Mark Kelly (left), STS-134 commander; and Andrew Feustel, mission specialist, are pictured on the aft flight deck of space shuttle Endeavour during rendezvous and docking operations with the International Space Station on Wednesday May 18, 2011. (AP Photo/NASA)
(AP) -- Two space shuttle Endeavour astronauts are spacewalking outside the International Space Station.
Drew Feustel (FOIST-el) and Gregory Chamitoff left the shuttle a few minutes early, at 3:10 a.m. EDT, while Endeavour and the station floated over the Philippines. Their spacewalk is scheduled to last about six and a half hours.
NASA officials said this spacewalk is supposed to be as routine as they get for what is always a risky task of strolling outside in space. The astronauts will retrieve three experiments outside the station, install a new one and do some maintenance work.
This is the first spacewalk for Chamitoff. He called it a dream come true.
Endeavour's astronauts will spacewalk four times.
More information: NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
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