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Atlantis astronauts conduct ISS maintenance spacewalk

RIA Novosti

04:36 20/11/2009 WASHINGTON, November 20 (RIA Novosti) - Two astronauts from U.S. shuttle Atlantis crew have completed the first spacewalk of their current mission to the International Space Station, NASA said on its website.

"Spacewalkers Mike Foreman and Robert Satcher completed a 6-hour, 37-minute spacewalk at 04:01 p.m. EST [21.01 GMT] on Thursday," NASA said.

The astronauts installed a spare communications antenna on the exterior of the orbital station, hooked up some cables and greased a robotic arm on the Kibo module. They also managed to do some extra maintenance work scheduled for the second spacewalk of the current STS-129 mission.

According to NASA, it was "the first of three STS-129 spacewalks, the 228th conducted by U.S. astronauts, the fourth for Foreman and the first for Satcher."

The Atlantis shuttle, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 16, successfully docked with the ISS on Wednesday.

It has delivered over 13 tons of supplies and equipment to the orbital station, which is expected to run until 2015.

Only five U.S. space shuttle missions remain before the shuttle fleet is retired next year. Russian, European and Japanese space freighters will keep the ISS supplied until NASA deploys its new capsule-style Orion spacecraft.

Atlantis mission will return ISS crew member Nicole Stott to Earth and is planned to be the final space shuttle crew rotation flight. Stott spent two and a half month on board the ISS.