Toothbrush used for vital space station repairs (+video)
With the help of a spare toothbrush, two spacewalking astronauts replaced a stuck bolt that had been preventing them from fixing a power unit.
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When Hoshide reported that the troublesome bolt was finally locked into place, the flight managers in Mission Control erupted in applause.
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"That is a little slice of awesome pie," Fischer radioed to the crew.
The International Space Station has four 220-pound MBSUs that harness power from the outpost's solar arrays and distribute it throughout the orbiting complex. Without the use of one unit, the station is unable to relay power from two of the eight solar arrays on the massive orbiting complex.
Last week, Williams and Hoshide removed a faulty MBSU and tried to install the spare, but they were unable to drive in one of the bolts that secures the unit to the station's truss. After repeated attempts failed the astronauts were forced to wrap up their marathon spacewalk.
The Aug. 30 spacewalk lasted 8 hours and 17 minutes, making it the third longest spacewalk in history and the longest one ever performed by a space station crew.
With the MBSU now secured in place, the spacewalkers will remove a faulty camera from the station's Canadarm 2 robotic arm, and replace it with a new one. If there is extra time after that, Williams and Hoshide may also install a micrometeoroid debris shield over part of an American module.
Today's outing is already a record-setting excursion for Williams. Roughly two hours into today's spacewalk, Williams overtook Peggy Whitson, a veteran spaceflyer and former Chief of the Astronaut Office, as the record holder for the most time spent working in the vacuum of space by a female astronaut, Byerly said.
Today's outing is the sixth for Williams and the second spacewalk for Hoshide, who is only the third Japanese spaceflyer to work outside in the vacuum of space.
The International Space Station is currently home to six astronauts: Williams and Joe Acaba of NASA, Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Yuri Malenchenko and Sergei Revin.
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
- Spacewalkers Fix Space Station Power Unit (Photos)
- The International Space Station: Inside and Out (Infographic)
- Building the International Space Station
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