Atlantis Crew Conducts Final Spacewalk

Space shuttle Atlantis crew members Michael Good and Garrett Reisman installed the final new battery, battery F, on one of the four solar arrays on the International Space Station (ISS) during the mission's third and final spacewalk. All six batteries the STS-132 mission delivered to the station are now installed. The astronauts completed the installation about 2 hours and 40 minutes into the spacewalk.

Good and Reisman will take battery 1, which was temporarily stored nearby on the integrated electrical assembly, and move it to the pallet that carried the new batteries to the station, and the pallet will be returned to the space shuttle. The spacewalkers' first task was the installation of an ammonia jumper on the port 4 and 5 truss. Then they finished the last of the battery replacement work, swapping the remaining two batteries and installing a battery that was left in a temporary stow position from the last spacewalk.

The final planned task is the retrieval of a Power and Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) from the orbiter's payload bay to bring inside the station at the end of the spacewalk. The PDGF will be installed to the Zarya module's exterior on a spacewalk later this summer. Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialist Steve Bowen will assist from inside the complex throughout the spacewalk. Mission Specialist Piers Sellers and Expedition 23 Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson will provide robotics support. STS-132 Commander Ken Ham will oversee the activities and assist with orbiter activities and transfer work.

On the first spacewalk, the crew completed a boom assembly for the Ku-band antenna and spares for the Canadian Dextre robotic arm extension. A radiator, airlock and European robotic arm for the Russian Multi-purpose Laboratory Module also are payloads on the flight, the space agency reported. The second spacewalk saw the astronauts replacing three batteries on the station port solar array.

Atlantis' storied history includes several notable events, including being the first orbiter launched into space; Atlantis was also the first shuttle to dock to the Russian Space Station Mir, and the shuttle behind seven of the 11 shuttle missions to Mir. Besides the visits to Mir, Atlantis carried the Magellan Spacecraft into orbit, sending it on its way to Venus, where it mapped 98 percent of the planet from orbit. The same year-1989-it also deployed the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter, where it collected data on the planet and its moons for eight years.