Astronauts orbiting far above earth attempted to attach a "porch" to the International Space Station Saturday -- a complicated maneuver which was hampered by microphone static.
As astronauts David Wolf and Timothy Kopra worked on attaching the Japanese Kibo lab, the static got so bad that the pair were almost inaudible to the crew inside the ISS.
"Dave, you're unreadable," astronaut Christopher Cassidy said from inside the space station. Cassidy apologized to mission control for the "ratty comm," and said Wolf and Kopra were working on the problem.
However, the static posed no safety threats during the five-hour spacewalk, NASA said.
While Wolf and Kopra worked on Kibo's porch, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and her ISS mates operated the station's robotic arms. They were tasked with lifting the porch out of Endeavour's payload bay and pushing it towards the Kibo lab.
Once installation is complete, the $1-billion lab will be the largest section of the space station. The large "veranda" will be used to conduct outdoor experiments.
Earlier in the mission, the shuttle did a flip to expose the vessel's underside. The crew then inspected the shuttle to ensure there wasn't any damage. The shuttle had lost some foam while leaving the planet.
York University astronomer Paul Delaney said that Payette and the rest of the crew were engaged in a delicate celestial dance to ensure the porch was maneuvered properly.
"This is a delicate operation," he told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel. "There's a lot of choreography going on in a short amount of time."
The spacewalk is the first of five scheduled to take place while the crew from the space shuttle Endeavour is on board the space station.
The shuttle, carrying seven astronauts arrived at the space station on Friday. It will remain there for about 10 days.
When Payette arrived she joined fellow Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, who is on a six-month mission to the space station.
It is the first time that two Canadian astronauts have been in space at the same time.
With files from The Associated Press
