Virts, Wilmore Finish Second Spacewalk

NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts ended their spacewalk at 1:34 p.m. EST with the repressurization of the Quest airlock. Wilmore and Virts completed all the scheduled tasks for today. They completed rigging a series of power cables on Pressurized Mating Adapter-2, lubricated the Latching End Effecter of the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm, and prepared the Tranquility module for the station’s upcoming reconfiguration in preparation for the arrival of commercial crew vehicles later this decade. They also were able to complete get-ahead work for the installation during Sunday’s spacewalk of the Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles (C2V2) system by pre-staging wire-ties that will be used to secure some 400 feet of cable.

The 6-hour, 43-minute spacewalk was the third for Wilmore and the second for Virts. Wilmore now has spent 19 hours and 58 minutes in the void of space during his three spacewalks. Virts has now spent 13 hours and 24 minutes outside during his two excursions. Crews have now spent a total of 1,165 hours and 51 minutes conducting space station assembly and maintenance during 186 spacewalks.

The duo will venture outside the space station again on Sunday, March 1, to install the C2V2 equipment commercial spacecraft delivering crews to the space station will use to rendezvous and dock with the orbital laboratory. NASA TV coverage will begin at 6 a.m. Sunday ahead of a planned 7:10 a.m. start time for the spacewalk.