Spacewalking Astronauts Install Japanese Lab

March 14, 2008 -- Two astronauts returned to the International Space Station after completing a seven-hour spacewalk that saw a Japanese element added to the station, NASA said Friday.

NASA declared the spacewalk complete at 4:19 A.M. (0819 GMT) shortly after Mission Specialist Rick Linnehan and Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman returned to the ISS and its hatches were shut.

During the mission, the spacewalkers and their colleagues inside the ISS moved an initial component of Japan's Kibo laboratory from the shuttle's cargo bay and lifted it atop the ISS with the space shuttle's robotic arm.

In the first task of their spacewalk, Linnehan and Reisman prepared the Japanese unit for removal from the cargo bay of space shuttle Endeavor, which docked Wednesday at the ISS.

Later, shuttle Commander Dominic Gorie and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi used the space shuttle's robotic arm to lift the unit -- a 4.2-tonne logistics module -- to its temporary home on the orbital outpost.

Bolts latching the unit atop the Harmony module of the ISS were secured at 4:06 A.M. (0806 GMT), NASA officials said.

The module is to be moved later and serve as a storage space atop Kibo, the main portion of which is scheduled for delivery to the ISS in late May.

The two spacewalkers then moved on to a different part of the ISS and installed two new components on the Canadian robotic arm Dextre.

The "Orbital Replacement Unit tool change out mechanisms" will function like hands on the two arms of the Canadian-built "dextrous manipulator," capable of latching on to payloads or tools, a NASA television commentator said.

Linnehan and Reisman floated outside the ISS in the brief glow of an orbital sunset at 0118 GMT Friday, and completed their spacewalk seven hours and one minute later.