At one point, Paolo A. Nespoli, the Italian astronaut who was coordinating the spacewalk from inside the station, asked his colleagues to take a short break to enjoy what might be the greatest perk of working in space: the view.
The crew carried out two spacewalks, one inside Spektr to reseat some power cables and another outside to set up experiments delivered by Progress M-40, which also carried a large amount of propellant to begin alterations to Mir's orbit ready for the station's decommissioning.
The apparent leak led to the swift decision by Nasa's Royce Renfrew, in line with flight rules, to end the spacewalk and both astronauts were ordered back inside.
If the installation succeeds, another spacewalk will be conducted from inside the new air lock to check out its operations.
A bent cooling line caused the suit to overheat and moisture to build up inside, ending the first two-person spacewalk from the station.
The helmet absorption pad, or HAP, lines the back of the helmet to absorb any extra water that might develop inside, as displayed by NASA's spacewalk officer Allison Bolinger.
Everything will be fixable from the inside, MacCallum said, eliminating the need for spacewalks.
Unlike the previous 26 excursions from the station, Thursday's 5-hour 45-minute spacewalk will not have a crew member inside tending the station.
At another news conference from the Johnson Space Center, Ginger Kerrick, the station spacewalk director, said the problem appeared to be inside the rotary mechanism of the joint.
Two Russian cosmonauts installed new HD camera eyes on the International Space Station during a record-setting spacewalk Friday (Dec. 27), only to have to return the devices inside due to an unspecified data glitch.
