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Last Shuttle Era Spacewalk Under Way

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The last spacewalk of the space shuttle era has begun, but there are no shuttle astronauts outside the International Space Station today.

Two space station residents are out to retrieve a broken ammonia pump, and stow it on board the docked shuttle Atlantis for a trip back to Earth. They’ll also attach a robot experiment to the station.

One of the spacewalkers commented on the view. “There is KSC.” ”Wow!” ”Hello Kennedy, beautiful launch.”

The spacewalking chores are being handled by space station astronauts Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan Jr.

Only four astronauts are flying aboard Atlantis. It’s the smallest crew in decades — too small, in fact, to have had time to train for this spacewalk. That’s why the job was handed over to the space station crew.

The 13-day flight by Atlantis is the last for NASA’s 30-year shuttle program.

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