Cape Canaveral (Florida): A pair of spacewalking astronauts from the US shuttle Discovery worked outside the International Space Station on Saturday to lay power cables for the orbital outpost`s last connecting node.
The node, named Tranquility, was due to arrive in February, leaving NASA with four supply runs to outfit the $100 billion station before the space shuttles are retired.
The last flights will include delivery of a Russian docking module and the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics experiment involving 60 agencies in 16 countries.
Discovery lead spacewalker Danny Olivas and his partner, Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, spent about 7 hours outside the station in the last of three spacewalks planned for the shuttle`s 13-day mission.
The pair lay 60 feet of cable for the Tranquility node, installed an external cargo platform, and repaired a gyroscope used to steer the station.
Discovery was set to leave the station on Tuesday, clearing the way for Japan`s first cargo ship. The H-2 Transfer Vehicle, known as HTV, was due to launch on Thursday from Japan`s Tanegashima Space Center.
As the station nears completion, its future is under review. A committee appointed by US President Barack Obama to assess the US human space program found broad support for extending US involvement in the station through at least 2020 -- five years beyond current projections.
NASA now spends about $2.5 billion of its $18 billion annual budget on the space station, a project of 16 nations.
The Human Space Flight Plans review committee, headed by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, was due to issue a summary report to NASA and the White House on Tuesday.
A preliminary plan by NASA, obtained by Reuters, outlines a new and expanded mission for the space station, suggesting it serve as a test site for technologies, partnerships and medical research needed to support eventual human missions to Mars.
Shuttle Discovery is due back at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday.
Bureau Report
