U.S. shuttle Endeavour's Mission Specialists Dave Williams and Rick Mastracchio successfully installed a new gyroscope onto the International Space Station during the second spacewalk which ended at 6:00 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT).
The new gyroscope replaces a faulty one, which was removed during the first half of the spacewalk. The new gyroscope is one of four 600-plus-pound gyroscopes that are used to control the station's attitude in orbit, according to NASA mission control.
Before concluding the 6-hour, 28-minute excursion, the orbital duo relocated the faulty gyroscope to an external stowage platform, where it will stay until it is returned to Earth on a future shuttle mission.
The third spacewalk is scheduled to take place Wednesday. A fourth spacewalk was added to the schedule when Endeavour's mission was extended by three days.
On Monday, NASA experts on the ground continued to analyze imagery collected Sunday during the crew's focused inspection of five areas of concern on the Endeavour's heat shield. A worrisome gouge was detected on the belly of Endeavour.
NASA mission managers expect to decide by Tuesday whether astronauts should go out and patch the gouge or whether the damage is benign enough for Endeavour to re-enter Earth's atmosphere safely.
Source: Xinhua
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