A pair of astronauts have stepped out on the third and final spacewalk of their shuttle mission, helping to install an enormous oxygen tank at the International Space Station.
Robert Satcher Jr and Randolph Bresnik removed the tank from a newly delivered cargo platform on the station, then let a robot arm take it from there.
Bresnik, still celebrating the birth of his daughter, Abigail Mae, was jazzed up for the excursion.
"Hey, Wyatt, I look just like Spider-Man," he called out to his three-and-a-half-year-old son as he clambered along the station's lattice-like framework on Monday.
The tank - 1.5 metres by 1.8 metres and 545 kg - was moved and attached to the NASA air lock, a chamber leading out to the vacuum of space. It was filled with high-pressure oxygen for future spacewalks. The spacewalkers hooked up the gas line for the tank, then opened and closed a valve for a leak check.
As elaborate directions came from inside the shuttle-station complex, the spacewalkers added their own in a nod to Thanksgiving. "Over the river and through the woods," Bresnik called out. "To grandmother's house we go," chimed in Satcher.
The new dad's enthusiasm was infectious. Satcher, the first orthopaedic surgeon in space, took some photographs for his Twitter followers.
"Need to give a shot to the Twitterverse," said the doctor, who goes by ZeroG-MD.
The two managed to get ahead of schedule, even though they floated out the hatch an hour late.
A valve on the drink bag in Satcher's suit came off as he was getting ready for the spacewalk. To everyone's relief, the valve to the water pouch went back on tightly. The concern was that big blobs of water could float up and get in his eyes if the valve came loose during the spacewalk.
The first two spacewalks of Atlantis's weeklong space station visit went so well, and the astronauts accomplished so much extra work, that only a few chores remained. Satcher and Bresnik hung up some science experiments, removed two orbital debris shields from the air lock to make room for the oxygen tank and then cinched the panels down.
Atlantis and its crew of seven will depart the space station on Wednesday. The shuttle will aim for a landing back at Kennedy Space Centre on Friday.
Rebecca Bresnik, meanwhile, was said to be doing well with her new baby. She delivered the 3 kg girl back in Houston just hours after her husband's first-ever spacewalk on Saturday.
On Sunday, Bresnik proudly wore a black "It's a girl" T-shirt, passed out pink bubblegum cigars to his 11 space mates, and showed off a pink onesie emblazoned with his crew's mission patch.
"Other than seeing my wife for the first time, I've never seen anything more beautiful than being outside" on a spacewalk, Bresnik said on Sunday. He said pictures of his daughter, beamed up later in the day by Mission Control, were sure to shove the views of Earth into third place.
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