Astronauts make last spacewalk of NASA shuttle era

July 12, 2011 at 8:55 a.m.

by The Associated Press

This Sunday, July 10, 2011 photo provided by NASA shows the docking mechanism in space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay shortly before the shuttle docked with the International Space Station.
This Sunday, July 10, 2011 photo provided by NASA shows the docking mechanism in space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay shortly before the shuttle docked with the International Space Station.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The last spacewalk of NASA's space shuttle era is under way nearly 250 miles above Earth.

Space station astronauts Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan Jr. ventured out Tuesday morning.

photo

NASA

AP

In this Sunday, July 10, 2011 photo provided by NASA, the space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station.

They'll retrieve a broken ammonia pump outside the International Space Station and pack it aboard the docked shuttle Atlantis. NASA wants the pump brought back so engineers can figure out why it failed last summer. The two will also set up a robotic refueling experiment.

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