Astronauts told to wrap up spacewalk
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: February 11, 2008
Running a bit behind schedule, astronauts Rex Walheim and Stan Love were told to defer a few minor tasks to a spacewalk Wednesday and to begin wrapping up a successful spacewalk while crewmate Leland Melvin, operating the space station's robot arm, continued moving the new Columbus module toward its home on the international lab complex.
Commander Steve Frick radioed congratulations to Walheim and Love, saying "man, you guys have done an amazing job. We're looking out our window here at Columbus about halfway there. I can't believe how much work you've gotten done on a tough EVA. This has just gone awesome. Can't wait to see you guys back inside."
Walheim and Love attached a grapple fixture to the Columbus module, hooked up electrical cables and removed protective covers over the lab's docking mechanism, clearing the way for Melvin to pull the bus-sized module out of the shuttle's cargo bay.
After recharging their spacesuit oxygen supplies in the Quest airlock module, the flight plan called for the spacewalkers to make preparations for replacing a nitrogen tank used to pressurize the station's ammonia coolant system. The actual swap out is planned for a second spacewalk Wednesday.
But because they were a bit behind schedule, flight controllers asked them to defer disconnecting electrical cables and two ammonia flex hoses. That work will be carried out later this week. Walheim did, however, press ahead with work to unfasten bolts on the tank assembly.
Love, making his first spacewalk, was asked to loiter at the airlock a few moments after recharging his oxygen supply, giving him a chance to marvel at the view.
"Columbus is on the move!" he exclaimed. "I was not expecting to be watching th e install from this perspective."
A few minutes later, he alerted flight controllers to what appeared to be a debris impact on an astronaut handrail around the Quest airlock module's outer hatch.
"Looks to me like a little impact crater," he said. "It is right where everybody grabs on the way out of the airlock."
In recent months, flight controllers have been concerned about unseen sharp edges on the station believed to be responsible for causing small tears in the protective covering on spacesuit gloves. Love was asked to take pictures of the damage, but it's not yet known whether the presumed crater he reported could be responsible for any such glove damage.
CGI image of the ISS after the installation of ''Columbus''
A spacewalk was conducted today by astronauts Rex Walheim and Stan Love, members of the STS-122 Space Shuttle crew, to install the new Columbus module onto the International Space Station. 

The spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA), began at 14:13 UTC, with the astronauts leaving the ''Quest'' airlock of the Space Station, and starting work to install an attachment point on top of the ''Columbus'' module, to allow it to be moved by the Station's robotic arm. This was completed at 19:00, about an hour later than planned, owing to the installation taking longer than expected. ''Columbus'' was lifted out of the payload bay of ''Atlantis'' at 19:55 UTC, by the Space Station's robotic arm, Canadarm2. Astronaut Dan Tani, controlling Canadarm2 from aboard the ISS remarked "Columbus has started its trip to the new world". At 21:29, ''Columbus'' soft-docked with the Space Station's ''Harmony'' node, and the module finished bolting itself in place by 21:44.

Meanwhile, the astronauts performed some tasks to prepare for the next spacewalk, which is currently scheduled for Wednesday. They loosened bolts holding a nitrogen tank in place on the port truss segment of the Station, ahead of its replacement. It was originally planned that they would also disconnect pipes and electrical connections, however these objectives were delayed to Wednesday's spacewalk, due to time constraints. The EVA finished at 22:12 UTC, having lasted seven hours and fifty-eight minutes

This marks the 102nd spacewalk as part of the International Space Station programme, and the first of three planned for the STS-122 Shuttle mission. It was originally planned that German astronaut Hans Schlegel would perform the EVA instead of Stan Love, however he was unable to do so due to an undisclosed medical problem.