Posted: Wed, Apr 25, 2001, 9:40 AM ET (1340 GMT)
Two astronauts completed the second of two spacewalks outside the International Space Station Tuesday, finishing wiring work for the station's new robot arm. Astronauts Chris Hadfield and Scott Parazynski spent seven hours and 40 minutes outside the shuttle Endeavour, attaching power, data, and video cables to a grapple fixture on the Destiny module used by Canadarm2, the new robotic arm added to the station Sunday. Their work was slowed down slightly by some minor wiring problems that added about an hour to their spacewalk. The astronauts also removed a communications antenna from the Unity module that is no longer needed and installed some spare equipment to a stowage rack on the exterior of Destiny. The new robotic arm will be put to use Wednesday when it will grab the Spacelab pallet used to deliver the arm to Destiny. It will then hand over the pallet to the shuttle's own Canadarm, which will stow the pallet in Endeavour's cargo bay. The shuttle and station crews will also be busy today unloading equipment from the Raffaello cargo module temporarily attached to the station. The shuttle will also fire its thrusters Wednesday to boost the station's orbit.
