Astronauts repair solar wing joint

24 November 2008 07:45pm

Astronauts carried out one last spacewalk on Monday to finish an unprecedented clean and lube job that they began a week ago at the international space station.

Spacewalkers Stephen Bowen and Shane Kimbrough hoped to wrap up work on a jammed solar-wing rotary joint and, as a precaution, squirt some extra grease on another joint that was working fine.

Just before Monday's spacewalk began, Nasa added a 16th day to space shuttle Endeavour's mission.

Monday's spacewalk was the fourth for Endeavour's astronauts. Not everything was completed during the last one - one more bearing needed to be replaced in the clogged joint - so Bowen and Kimbrough had to take care of that, too.

The rotary joint on the right side of the space station has not worked properly for more than a year, preventing the solar wings on that side from pointing automatically toward the sun. Grinding parts left the joint full of metal grit.

Almost all the greasy mess was cleaned up during the first three spacewalks and new bearings were put in. Bowen and Kimbrough planned to finish the job on Monday. If that goes well, the first test of the newly repaired joint would take place on Tuesday.

An identical joint on the left side of the orbiting complex has worked perfectly, but Nasa wanted the spacewalkers to grease it up to ensure its longevity.

As they have before, the spacewalkers had to share grease guns 225 miles up. There was one less tool kit after a sack full of grease guns and other items floated away on the first spacewalk last Tuesday.

© The Press Association