Space station astronauts make risky spacewalk

The space station's two American astronauts went out on a riskier-than-usual spacewalk Wednesday to fix one of two equipment failures that have crippled their power system and threatened to stall construction.

Commander Peggy Whitson and Daniel Tani replaced a motor needed to tilt a solar wing toward the sun, taking extra precautions to avoid being shocked. As soon as the new motor was hooked up, electricity began flowing through the unit.

"Yee-haw! Excellent," Whitson said.

NASA held off on declaring success as flight controllers tested the motor via ground commands.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/01/30/space.station.ap/index.html