Astronauts complete maintenance spacewalk

HOUSTON, May 25 (UPI) -- Astronauts Drew Feustel and Mike Fincke Wednesday completed a spacewalk to conduct maintenance on the International Space Station, NASA said.

In the 6-hour, 54-minute spacewalk, the third of the current Endeavor shuttle mission, the astronauts connected wireless communications gear, a task deferred from the first spacewalk, and installed jumper cables to back up the power supply for the Russian side of the space station, NASA said in a release.

They also installed a power and data grapple fixture to Zarya, the Russian module of the space station, which will allow the station's robotic arm to "walk" to the Russian segment, extending its reach by using that grapple fixture as a base.

It was the 247th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts and the 117th conducted from space station airlocks, NASA said.

The mission's fourth and final spacewalk is scheduled for Friday morning, Florida Today reported.

No spacewalks are scheduled for the final shuttle mission by Atlantis, which is to launch July 8 and land July 20, the 42nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.