Astronauts go on space walk to hook up new 'room'

Two astronauts went out on a spacewalk today to wire up the International Space Station’s newest room and keep the next shuttle visit on track.

Commander Peggy Whitson and Daniel Tani needed to hook up power and heater cables and fluid lines between the space station and the Harmony compartment that was delivered by the shuttle last month.

The fluid lines – for carrying ammonia, a coolant – were in a 300lb tray, which the spacewalkers removed from its storage location on the space station, then lugged over to Harmony.

The two took turns carrying the tray, which was awkward to handle, as Whitson warned Tani: “Don’t get it going too fast.”

Frozen ammonia crystals floated out and bounced off Whitson, but Mission Control told her not to worry about it as decontamination procedures include brushing off the toxic substance and letting the sun bake it off.

Nasa cannot launch another space shuttle until the bus-size Harmony is hooked up, inside and out.

Shuttle Atlantis is supposed to blast off on December 6 with a European laboratory that will dock to Harmony. One of Harmony’s other parking spaces is reserved for a Japanese lab.

The space station’s three residents have been working almost non-stop since Discovery’s departure two weeks ago, and just last week moved Harmony to its permanent location.

This was their second spacewalk – a third and final outing is set for Saturday to attach another fluid tray to Harmony.

Nasa is still trying to figure out how to fix a jammed joint that is needed to turn one of the space station’s two sets of huge solar wings.

Even though Discovery’s crew returned samples of steel shavings clogging the joint, engineers were unable to ascertain which parts are grinding against each other.

The joint will probably need to be cleaned and fixed, a formidable task requiring as many as four spacewalks, before Japan’s lab can fly next year. Astronauts on the next shuttle flight may squeeze in a joint inspection.