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 Flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson left the
station's Quest airlock just after 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) for what
was expected to be a 2-1/2-hour spacewalk. They carried with them a
spare computer to be installed in the central section of the
station's exterior power truss.
"It looks like a great day to take a walk in space," Canadian
astronaut Jeremy Hansen radioed to the crew from NASA's Mission
Control in Houston.
NASA scheduled the abbreviated outing — most U.S. spacewalks last
more than six hours — after the computer failed on April 11.
The device, which is about the size of a small microwave oven, is
one of two that control several critical systems outside the
station, including rotating the solar panel wings to track the sun
and positioning a mobile base for the station's robotic crane.
Replacing the computer is "pretty straightforward," astronaut and
former space station crewmember Chris Cassidy said in an interview
last week on NASA Television.
"We anticipate it to go quickly, but as with anything in space
operations ... you never know what's going to be thrown at you,"
Cassidy said.
Except for emergency repairs, such as the computer replacement, NASA
spacewalks remain suspended while engineers continue to assess the
spacesuit failure last year that caused the helmet worn by Italian
astronaut Luca Parmitano to fill with water, nearly drowning him.
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The leak was later traced to a blocked filter. NASA flew new parts
to the station for astronauts to make spacesuit repairs. Before two
emergency spacewalks in December to fix the station's cooling
system, astronauts also outfitted their helmets with absorbent pads
and snorkels for breathing if the leak reoccurred.
Those spacewalks were completed with no problems. Mastracchio, who
is making his ninth spacewalk, and Swanson, on his fifth, also
included the snorkels and pads in their helmets for Wednesday's
outing.
A new spacesuit was among the cargo aboard the Space Exploration
Technologies' Dragon capsule that reached the station on Sunday.
NASA expects to resume routine spacewalks for maintenance and
less-pressing repairs in July.
The station, a $100 billion project of 15 nations, is a permanently
staffed research laboratory that flies about 260 miles above Earth.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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