Sunita takes her first stroll in space

Washington Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams took her first walk in space to complete the rewiring of her new home, the International Space Station, with some help from a veteran spacewalker.

"It's great to have some good on-orbit electricians working for us," astronaut Stephen Robinson in Mission Control at Houston told the shuttle Discovery crew after the newly wired circuits were turned on for the first time.

The spacewalk, which began at 12.55 hours IST Sunday (7.25 p.m. GMT Saturday) was to be the third and final outing of space shuttle Discovery's 12-day flight before the Mission Management Team approved another one on Monday to attempt to retract the balky Port 6 solar array.

This would call for at least one of the spacewalkers to go to the Port 6 truss and push on the box into which the array is folding to ease tension in apparently misaligned guide wires. The 110-foot (33-meter)-long panel must be completely folded into a storage box so it can be relocated to another part of the station next year.

"Bye-bye Bob," sang out Williams as she watched veteran Robert Curbeam float through the airlock into open space. She followed a few minutes later to be greeted by Curbeam, "Welcome to the club, Suni."

In rewiring the station's power system in a permanent set-up, the spacewalker duo completed a dicey task essential for the addition of European and Japanese laboratories to the outpost beginning next year.

While Williams, known as Suni by her colleagues, and Curbeam rerouted power through station electrical channels 1 and 4, Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang had rerouted power through channels 2 and 3 during the mission's second spacewalk Thursday. The electrical work puts the station's power system and sets the stage for the addition of more solar arrays.

In order for the duo to perform the electrical work, flight controllers powered down station systems prior to the start of the spacewalk. They began repowering those systems at 2.48 a.m. IST Sunday (9.18 p.m. GMT Saturday).

Rewiring done Williams and Curbeam turned their attention to the installation of a robotic arm grapple fixture and the relocation of debris shield panels from the station's interior to a storage point outside.

Discovery Pilot Bill Oefelein coordinated the spacewalk activities while Mission Specialist Joan Higginbotham operated the station's robotic arm.

Barring an earlier retraction of the array, the fourth spacewalk Monday moves Discovery's undocking to Tuesday, late inspection of the shuttle's heat shield to Wednesday and landing to Friday Dec 22.

NASA has been meticulous about scouting for damage on the shuttle's protective heat shields since losing Columbia with all seven astronauts on board including Indian born Kalpana Chawla in 2003.

Managers have no concerns that Discovery's heat shield sustained Columbia-like damage during launch, but they would like to make a final check before the shuttle leaves orbit to make sure the ship hasn't been hit by micrometeoroids or pieces of space debris.