spacetoday.net: Astronauts complete first STS-128 spacewalk

Posted: Wed, Sep 2, 2009, 8:27 AM ET (1227 GMT)
STS-128: EVA #1 (NASA)

Two astronauts spent over six and a half hours outside the International Space Station Tuesday evening, removing equipment that will be returned to Earth. Danny Olivas and Nicole Stott carried out the first of three planned EVAs during the STS-128 mission without any major problems, completing their work in six hours and 35 minutes. The two unbolted an ammonia tank used by the station's cooling system and moved it to the shuttle's Discovery cargo bay for return to Earth. They also removed two experiments mounted on the exterior of the Columbus lab module to go back to Earth on the shuttle. The only major issue with the spacewalk was a 30-minute loss of communications with the station, which was blamed on a violent storm at a ground station in Guam.