spacetoday.net: Spacewalkers complete station work; mission extended

Posted: Tue, Nov 25, 2008, 7:31 AM ET (1231 GMT)
STS-126: EVA #4 (NASA)

Astronauts completed work repairing a troublesome joint outside the International Space Station on Monday while mission controllers extended the shuttle's mission there a day. Steve Bowen and Shane Kimbrough spent six hours and seven minutes outside the ISS on Monday on an EVA that started at 1:24 pm EST (1824 GMT), finishing work on the Solar Array Rotary Joint (SARJ) on the station's starboard side. The two also checked on the health of the SARJ on the station's port side and performed a number of other minor tasks outside the station. Shortly before the spacewalk started mission managers decided to extend the STS-126 mission by a day to allow astronauts more time to get a new water recycling unit on the station working properly; by late Monday evening the unit did appear to be working for an extended period, after several days of problems. The extension means the shuttle will undock from the station on Friday and land at the Kennedy Space Center Sunday at 1:18 pm EST (1818 GMT).