This Article is From Aug 30, 2012

Sunita Williams to take spacewalk to fix up space station

Sunita Williams to take spacewalk to fix up space station

File picture of Sunita Williams

Cape Canaveral, Florida: Two astronauts - an American and Japanese - are taking a spacewalk to replace failed equipment at the International Space Station.

Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide expect to spend six hours plugging in a new power-switching unit, hooking up power cables and replacing a bad camera on the space station's big robotic arm.

It's the second spacewalk in less than two weeks. On August 20, two Russians worked outside the orbiting lab.

It's no longer common for astronauts to step into the vacuum of space. That's because after almost 14 years, the space station is virtually complete and running well.

.