Space walker William McArthur, reining himself atop the ISS' P6 array ready to jettison an unneeded 60-pound instrument into orbit contacted his colleagues on Earth, "I'm ready to throw a Hail Mary". Fellow astronaut Valery Tokarev's helmet camera caught the act as the potential probe traveled a 30-degree trajectory tumbling into the deeper recesses of space.
McArthur's radio embodied his glee, "How's that for a Hail Mary pass?" Unfortunately for McArthur his “javelin-throw” is unlikely to remain suspended in space for eternity, with the probe eventually due to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
But that should be a lesser concern given that he and others need to worry about debris coming in the path of the ISS. Despite a delayed start due to a procedural error in the repressurization and airlock, the two space walkers were running ahead of their schedule and actually delayed the jettison to complete another task.
They instead addressed the removal of a radiator rotary controller from one of the solar arrays that was otherwise intended for the end. Just over three and half hours after they started their walk in space, they jokingly flung away the potential probe.
They had already completed a TV camera installation on the ISS' port 1 segment that next year will beam back pictures of the shuttle crew adding a new segment to the ISS truss. McArthur had said before his departure about the camera views critical for robotics operations, "It's hard to imagine how blind you are inside the station to see yourself".
The last of their tasks during the space walk had to do with ensuring redundant power in the transporter moving along the solar array truss. Ending their walk after five hours and 22 minutes, almost a whole working day in open space, the two accomplished all their objectives to airlock and re-pressurize.
The space walk, the 63rd such devoted to the ISS assembly and maintenance, is also McArthur's third and Tokarev's first such experience. The 18th instance using the Quest airlock module that was last used in April 2003 happens to be the first time after a contamination issue arose in the module's heat exchanger. Since ISS's setup five years ago, 41 Americans, 12 Russians and one each from Japan, Canada and France have walked the space for over 378 hours and 40 minutes.
Unlike the pre-2003 ventures where one member stayed onboard while two members went out, crew reduction since the Columbia disaster has meant that the ISS is left unmanned during the space walks. The tasks completed during these walks include adding new segments to the ISS, installation of cameras, discarding of instruments or repairing of equipment.
For the two men who now man the ISS, it is tasks like the jettisoning of a potential probe that offer some humorous respite from their lonely work in their odd six months aboard the International Space Station. Mission Control's Rick Linnehan has all reason to cheer them along as he radios back, "Pretty impressive".
