Williams, Hoshide Complete MBSU Installation

 

Spacewalkers Aki Hoshide and Suni Williams work outside the International Space Station.
MBSU cleaning tools that were used during installation.

Flight Engineers Suni Williams and Aki Hoshide completed their second spacewalk in less than a week at 1:34 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 5. They completed the installation of a Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) that was hampered last week by a possible misalignment and damaged threads where a bolt must be placed. They also installed a camera on the International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2.

Flight Engineer Joe Acaba operated the Canadarm2 and monitored the spacewalkers from inside the International Space Station. Hoshide rode the Canadarm2 attached to a portable foot restraint to the MBSU worksite.

Wednesday’s spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 28 minutes.



Williams' and Hoshide's previous spacewalk on Aug. 30 lasted eight hours and 17 minutes making it the third longest in U.S. spaceflight history. It was originally scheduled for 6.5 hours before mission controllers and the astronauts struggled to install the MBSU.



Suni Williams surpassed Peggy Whitson during the Sept. 5 excursion for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut. Whitson worked outside for 39 hours and 46 minutes over the course of six spacewalks. Williams has conducted six spacewalks for a total of 44 hours and 2 minutes.