CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA’s yearlong spaceman, Scott Kelly, chalked up his first spacewalk Wednesday just hours before he sets a record for the nation’s longest trip off the planet.
Kelly found himself repeatedly wiping away excess grease while lubricating the snares on the tip of the International Space Station’s big robot arm. The job was sloppier and more time-consuming than expected, and couldn’t be completed as time ran out.
“It’s so messy,” Kelly said.
Kelly and fellow spacewalker Kjell Lindgren spent seven hours outside tackling a long overdue list of maintenance chores. In addition to the routine lube work, they routed cable for a future docking port, removed insulation from an electronic switching unit, and covered an antimatter and dark matter detector. A few tasks had to be left undone.
They'll venture back out Nov. 6 for round two.
Thursday, meanwhile, promises to be another banner day for Kelly.
In the wee hours of Thursday morning, just after midnight Eastern time, Kelly will break the American record for NASA’s longest single space shot. That 215-day record — more than seven months — was set in 2007.
