Endangered spacewalk by Claudia Sonea

The fifth and final operational NASA space shuttle faced some troubles when Rick Mastracchio noticed that his glove was pierced with a hole in the outer layer. NASA pulled back the astronauts and shortened a six and a half hours spacewalk. Mastracchio assured the Mission Control that he is alright and the only thing that bothers him is that he can't be outside with his team mate Clay Anderson who was wrapping up. As a standard procedure, astronauts check their gloves every 30 minutes in order to be sure their space suits don't have any holes and snags. The two astronauts were already more than four hours in space when the hole was spotted, so most of their assignments were fulfilled. Except the retrieval of some experiments, the spacewalk completed the primarily task of rearranging equipment. A fourth spacewalk should be performed, because there is a gouge in the belly of the space shuttle Endeavour. However, NASA is optimistic and hopes that it will not be necessary to do it. Although officials stated their expectations, they still not confirmed as a sure measure to not make another spacewalk. Mastracchio transmitted to the Mission Control that he doesn't know from where the little hole appeared and that the gloves were good. A similar thing happened last year after a shuttle flight to the international space station. Also the shuttle confirmed damage from the external fuel tanks striking the thermal protection of the outer hull. Let's say a pray that everything will have a happy end and for all those that are out there were thoughts can only penetrate.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070815/ap_on_re_us/space_shuttle;_ylt=AhR02b8z5tX6N8mmHu5jGrWs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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