Today, the space shuttle Atlantis and International Space Station (ISS) crew members are focusing on the third and final spacewalk planned for the STS-132 mission. Spacewalkers are installing a jumper, changing out two batteries and retrieving a grapple fixture during the 6.5-hours planned for this excursion.

Atlantis' astronauts awoke at 12:50 a.m. CDT to "Traveling Light" by JJ Cale, played for mission specialist Piers Sellers, who is at the controls of the station's robotic arm during this spacewalk.

"Piers is over in the station so unfortunately he didn't have a chance to hear that," reported commander Ken Ham.

"Aww, that's too bad. Maybe you can sing it for him," Mike Massimino replied from Mission Control.

"I will try but I am sure that I can't do it justice," answered Ham.

"I don't know, I think you would do a real good job," radioed capcom Massimino.

Ham, pilot Tony Antonelli, and mission specialists Stephen Bowen and Sellers are supporting the spacewalk being peformed by Garrett Reisman and Michael Good.

At 5:27 a.m. CDT, the two spacewalkers took their spacesuits to battery power, signifying the start of the extravehicular activity, or EVA.


Credit: NASA TV
Making quick work of their first task to install an ammonia coolant jumper on the station's port, or left, 4 and 5 truss segments, Reisman and Good turned their attention to completing the solar array battery work begun by the second spacewalk, replacing the remaining two 375-pound batteries and installing one that was left in a temporary stow position.

Their final scheduled task is to retrieve a Power and Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) from Atlantis' payload bay to bring inside the station at the end of the spacewalk. The PDGF will be installed to the Zarya service module's exterior during a spacewalk later this summer.

As lead for this spacewalk, Good's spacesuit has a band of red and white barber pole stripes. Reisman is wearing an all-white spacesuit.

Spacewalkers Michael Good and Garrett Reisman installed the final new battery, battery F, for the International Space Station's port 6 (P6) solar array at 8:07 a.m. CDT, completing the work begun during the second of the STS-132 mission's spacewalks to outfit the outpost with a "new six pack" of batteries.

The astronauts finished the battery installation at about two hours and 40 minutes into today's third and final planned 6.5-hour spacewalk.

"The batteries are done," commented Reisman. "Can you believe it?"

"Yeah," replied Good.

"Now we can go finish EVA 1," Reisman joked, referencing his first spacewalk on this mission.

Credit: NASA TV
Good and Reisman then began cleaning up their worksite, beginning with the old battery 1, which was temporarily installed nearby on an integrated electrical assembly. They moved the battery to the pallet that carried the new batteries to the station, the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), which will be transferred to Atlantis' payload bay for its return to Earth.

Once done cleaning up, the spacewalkers will retrieve a Power and Data Grapple Fixture from the shuttle's payload bay to bring it back inside the station with them. It will be installed on the Zarya service module during a spacewalk later this year. The Power and Data Grapple Fixtures act as the base for one end of the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, allowing it to attach, pick up, manipulate and detach from various locations around the orbiting laboratory.

For one last time, spacewalkers have worked in Atlantis' payload bay.

Michael Good and Garrett Reisman entered the space shuttle's cargo bay to retrieve a Power and Data Grapple Fixture, which they will bring back inside the International Space Station to be configured for installation on the Zarya service module later this year. The fixture will act as an attach point for the Canadarm2 robotic arm, enabling it to reach the ISS Russian segment modules for the first time.


Credit: NASA TV
While inside the payload bay, the astronauts paused to pose for photos outside the orbiter's aft deck windows. As they freed the grapple fixture from its launch mount, Atlantis flew over the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canveral, Florida.

"Oh, you can see the Cape if you look back the other way," reported spacewalk choreographer and Atlantis' pilot Tony Antonelli from inside the orbiter.

"Oh, I can!" replied Reisman. "Runway 15, 33 looks clear."

"Oh wow, that is cool," said Good. "I can see the [shuttle landing facility], I can see the two pads, I can see the skid strip."

"And Houston, we have the field in sight," radioed Antonelli evoking a call he or commander Ken Ham will make during Atlantis' final approach.

"Houston copies but we'd rather you not land just yet," said capcom Steve Swanson from Mission Control.

Six hours and 46 minutes after they began, spacewalkers Michael Good and Garrett Reisman completed the third and final planned spacewalk of the STS-132 mission at 12:13 p.m. CDT, marked by the repressurization of the Quest airlock.

"Tony, you might need to tell Garrett he needs to go from 'Big G' to 'Micro G' to make enough room for Bueno to get in," radioed capcom Steve Swanson from Mission Control to spacewalk choreographer Tony Antonelli, referring to the two spacewalkers by their nicknames.

"Just not all the way to 'Zero G,'" replied Reisman.

The mission specialists successfully replaced the final two batteries for the International Space Station's port 6 (P6) solar arrays' new "six pack" and retrieved a grapple fixture from Atlantis' cargo bay to bring back into the station with them. Working ahead of schedule, Reisman and Good were also able to reconfigure tools to be used by future spacewalkers.

"It was three great, fantastic EVAs. We appreciate all your work," said Swanson at the end of the spacewalk.

"Thanks for being with us these last three EVAs. It was awesome," Reisman said, thanking Mission Control and his and his crewmates' training team.

Credit: NASA TV
This was the 239th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts, the 146th supporting space station assembly and maintenance, the fourth for Good and the third for Reisman.

NASA on Friday released the footage recorded by cameras mounted atop each of the twin solid rocket boosters that helped propel space shuttle Atlantis into Earth orbit on May 14, providing two new and unique views of Atlantis' final planned ascent.

The reusable boosters were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch about 140 miles downrange from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where the STS-132 mission to the International Space Station began.