Astronauts go on second spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts had to pull out a hammer and pry bar while attaching a big, new tank full of ammonia coolant to the International Space Station on Sunday, successfully driving in a stiff bolt after two frustrating hours.

The 215-mile-high action unfolded on the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13.

Making their second spacewalk in three days, Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson banged and pulled and shoved, with no success, on the stuck bolt. They undid the good bolts and jostled the 1,700-pound, refrigerator-size tank in case it was misaligned. Finally, after they maneuvered the tank from a different angle, the troublesome bolt slid into place.

“You got to be kidding me!” shouted Anderson.

“Did it go in?” astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger asked from inside.

“Yes, yes. You got to be kidding me,” Anderson replied. “It is in there.” Then he paused for effect. “Now what do we do?”

As he turned the 6-inch bolt a dozen times, Anderson urged, “Come on, baby. Get on there. Yeah, get ’er done.”

The astronauts inside kept urging the spacewalkers to take a break and rest their hands. But they insisted they weren’t too tired. Nevertheless, Mission Control put off the fluid line hookups for the tank and a few other chores, saying they could be completed in the third and final spacewalk Tuesday.

Even with that, the spacewalk ran long at 7½ hours. By then, the two were beat.

Shuttle Discovery’s commander, Alan Poindexter, urged his two crewmen to “take it slow and easy” as they headed back inside. And Metcalf-Lindenburger promised them a good dinner. Anderson, a Nebraskan, got a hankering for corn — and steak — after Metcalf-Lindenburger complimented him with a baseball term.

“Clay makes turning bolts look like a can of corn,” she said, referring to an easily caught fly ball. “That was a long, long day, and you did a really good job.”