Crew Works Around Issues During Spacewalk 1

Astronaut Stefanyshyn-Piper during EVA 1 today

SLN: Up to the Minute, I'm Charles Atkeison. A grease gun spilled its contents into spacewalking astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper tool bag and then later the tool bag floated off into space, minor issues according to mission management.

The crews focus is about to begin on the starboard solar alpha rotary joint or SARJ. The pair will clean and then lube this area which ran into trouble during rotary test of the new solar array earlier this year.

Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen began today's spacewalk at 1:09 pm ET. Later, at about 3:33 pm ET, lead spacewalker Stefanyshyn-Piper reported back to Mission Control that her Braycote dry grease gun had discharged in her bag. She later began cleaning the bag and tools inside, and then accidently it floated away and out of the area.

Inside the international space station, Endeavour mission specialist Don Pettit and Expedition 18 flight engineer Sandra Magnus are using the station's robot arm to assist the spacewalkers. Also, Endeavour mission specialist Shane Kimbrough is the spacewalk coordinator.

At a MET+3 days, 19 hours into the flight of Endeavour, and +2 hrs, 45 minutes into today's spacewalk, this is spacelaunchnews.com.