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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two astronauts made history weekday as the test spacewalkers of NASA's 30-year shuttle program, completing cerebration of the International Space Station with the uncreased addition of an spreading boom.

"This expanse send is the pinnacle of manlike achievement and international cooperation," spacewalker Gregory Chamitoff observed before heading backwards inside.

"Twelve eld of antiquity and 15 countries and now it's the temple in the sky and hopefully the sill to our future. So congratulations everybody on gathering complete."

Chamitoff said it was run for Endeavour to be inform at the modify of expanse send cerebration since it was inform for the prototypal gathering assignment in Dec 1998. It was the ordinal spacewalk in a hebdomad for the Endeavour astronauts, headlike backwards to Earth in just a some life to modify NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight.

Chamitoff and his spacewalking partner, Mike Fincke, teamed up with mechanism limb operator Gregory Johnson to accomplish this terminal cerebration job.

"Assembly complete. Amazing," Chamitoff said erst the 50-foot godsend was latched securely in place. "Boy, this is a big expanse station," he marveled several transactions later.

All forthcoming spacewalks — including one during the test shuttle voyage this summer — module be performed by full-time expanse send residents. The Endeavour astronauts wished the forthcoming spacewalkers well as the reproduce to the correct was shut.

This was the 164th spacewalk by shuttle astronauts; the prototypal was performed backwards in 1983. The bulk — 110 — were for the International Space Station, and 23 participating the Hubble Space Telescope.

Another evaluation was achieved Friday: 1,000 hours of spacewalking at the orbiting outpost.

Before weekday morning, astronauts had logged 995 hours correct for expanse send gathering and maintenance. Fincke and Chamitoff impact the 1,000-hour evaluation five hours into their 7 1/2-hour spacewalk, the 159th by every countries to physique the send and ready it humming.

The expanse station's new attached godsend was utilised by shuttle Endeavour's astronauts Thursday to analyse their board for micrometeorite damage. NASA expects to closing reviewing the 3-D images Friday. If everything looks good, managers module country Endeavour for incoming week's trip home.

The godsend module remain permanently at the expanse send and support with forthcoming repairs, especially in hard-to-reach areas. Fincke and Chamitoff place an attachment on one modify of the pole for the expanse station's 58-foot mechanism limb — which would debase 108 feet when control the godsend — and disconnected the no-longer-needed laser sensors at its tip.

Besides the boom, Endeavour delivered a $2 billion particle physics device that was settled on the send terminal week.

Endeavour, docked at the expanse send through this weekend, is making its terminal grace before existence retired to a museum in California. Atlantis module near out the shuttle information in July.

"Beautiful Endeavour," Fincke titled out as the spacewalk got low way. "She's a enthusiastic ship."

"Looks like she belongs correct there," Chamitoff agreed.

The spacewalkers also savored the views 220 miles below.

"Most beautiful follower in the solar grouping — wow," Fincke said.

Later Friday, Fincke module surpass the U.S. record of 377 life in space. He spent six months living on the expanse send — twice. This is his prototypal shuttle trip; he previously rode Slavonic Soyuz rockets into orbit.

"I could not deal this time with a group of meliorate people, including our friends on the ground," Fincke radioed.

Endeavour and its crew of six module yield the expanse send late Sun night. Landing is set for the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday during a rare touchdown in darkness.

While NASA's role in expanse send cerebration is over, the Slavonic Space Agency haw add another chamber or digit in eld to come. The Russians also module move to provide rides to and from the orbiting lab for U.S. astronauts until private companies in USA are healthy to verify over the job.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

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