WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two engineers on the International Space Station (ISS) completed the 208th spacewalk lasting 5 hours and 57 minutes to repair the Canadian-built robotic arms on Friday.
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Japan's Norishige Kanai moved spare handpieces called the Latching End Effectors (LEE), for the space station's Canadian-built robotic arm, known as Canadarm2, according to NASA.
They moved one to a long-term storage location for future use as a spare part and brought the other inside the space station to be returned to Earth, which will be refurbished and later relaunched to the orbiting laboratory.
The spacewalkers also positioned an interface tool for the Canadian Space Agency's robotic handyman "Dextre," and installed a grounding strap on a component of the LEE positioned on one end of the robotic arm.
They adjusted a strut on a component on one of the station's spare parts platforms.
The component is a flex hose rotary coupler that transfers liquid ammonia across a connecting point on the station's backbone to provide cooling for its systems.
The spacewalk is the third this year. It is the fourth time in Vande Hei's career and the first experience for Japanese Aerospace Agency astronaut Kanai.
