Spacewalkers Finish Work on Station Girder

NASA’s most experienced spacewalker and his rookie partner wrapped up work on the international space station’s new 44-foot girder and hung powerful floodlights outside the orbiting outpost.

It was the fourth and final spacewalk for the visiting astronauts of space shuttle Atlantis, who are due to leave today.

Jerry Ross, the veteran astronaut, and Lee Morin attached a 14-foot guide rail and smaller handholds to the girder and put shock absorbers on the rail car that rides a track on the beam. They also set up a radiation monitor outside the space station and tried to test a gas-sniffing gauge, but it malfunctioned.