14 DAY TRIAL // Four decades after the day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttle Endeavor marked the moment by performing the second spacewalk of STS-127. Mission specialists Dave Wolf and Tom Marshburn were outside the space station at the precise moment when the two moon-goers reached their destination, at around 4:17 pm EDT (2017 GMT). The extra-vehicular activity (EVA) marked the 202nd excursion into space in 40 years.
The main objective for the spacewalk was for Wolf and Marshburn to attach three very large spare-part segments to the main truss rod, on specially designed stowage platforms. They managed to complete all of their assignments in less than seven hours, while the EVA was originally planned to last six and a half hours. CSA Astronaut Julie Payette and NASA Shuttle Commander Doug Hurley controlled the ISS' robotic arm during the mission, while additional support for the complex maneuvers was offered by Endeavor crew member Chris Cassidy, from inside the shuttle, Space informs.
The spacewalk began at 11:27 am EDT (15:27 GMT), and Wolf and Marshburn occupied most of their time with handling delicate cargo such as a space communication antenna, or a new cooling system pump, which are indispensable to the ISS. New parts for the railcar-like transport system aboard the space station have also been deployed and securely fastened to their stowage platforms. Gathering these supplies is necessary, considering that NASA might go ahead with its plan to retire the space shuttle by the end of 2010, and that there are no other spacecraft out there capable of carrying what they carry.
In addition to the work outside, the astronauts inside the ISS conducted repairs on the facility's $19-million bathroom, which they managed to get to work in no time. Though it may seem trivial, the number of logistics problems that would have appeared if they hadn't managed to fix it would have soon overwhelmed the astronauts. Recently, NASA announced that the extent of the damage was unknown, but, with a few turns of a screw, everything was back in order.
Back on Earth, at NASA's headquarters, in Washington DC, the American agency organized a press conference featuring a number of astronauts from the Apollo program, including Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin. They criticized the agency for its diminished role in space exploration, and for losing the initiative as far as going to other planets was concerned. “We have allowed our country to turn into a risk averse society. It's reflected at NASA, it's reflected in everything that we do today (...) there are things worth risking your life for,” Walt Cunningham, the module pilot of the Apollo 7 mission, said.