NASA STS-134 Update: Third Spacewalk Concludes

Astronauts Drew Feustel and Mike Fincke completed a six-hour, 54-minute spacewalk at 8:37 a.m. EDT.

They completed all planned tasks, installing cables to increase redundancy for the power system on the Russian segment of the station, completing the external wireless antenna system work Feustel and Greg Chamitoff began during the first spacewalk, and installing a power and data grapple fixture to Zarya. The fixture will allow the station’s robotic arm to “walk” to the Russian segment, extending its reach by using that grapple fixture as a base.

This was the third of the four STS-134 spacewalks, for a mission total of 21 hours 20 minutes. It was the 247th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts, the 117th from space station airlocks, and the 158th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, totaling 995 hours, 13 min. If all goes as planned, the 1,000th hour of space station assembly and maintenance will be logged Friday.

It was Feustel’s sixth spacewalk for a total time of 42 hours and 18 minutes; he is 14th on the all-time list. This was his last spacewalk for the mission.

It was Fincke’s eighth spacewalk for a total time of 41 hours and 13 minutes; he is tied for 18th on the all-time list with cosmonaut Talgat Musabayev. On Friday, when Fincke conducts the mission’s final spacewalk, he also will be doing so on the same day he will surpass Peggy Whitson as the U.S. astronaut who has spent the most days in space. She spent 377 days in space.

NASA Television will air a mission status briefing with STS-134 Lead Flight Director Derek Hassmann and STS-134 Lead Spacewalk Officer Allison Bolinger to discuss the spacewalk. The briefing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.