Shuttle crew spacewalks, tests repair methods

Two shuttle Discovery astronauts completed a seven-hour spacewalk yesterday to restore a critical steering device on the International Space Station and test shuttle heat shield repairs that NASA hopes will prevent another Columbia disaster.

"What a view," Japan's Soichi Noguchi said as he drifted out of Discovery's airlock into the open payload bay and looked down on Southeast Asia 358 km below.

The spacewalk was NASA's first at the International Space Station since November 2002.

After taking a few minutes to acclimatise to the vastness of open space, Noguchi and Robinson, both first time spacewalkers, used a specially designed caulking gun and putty knives to try to repair sample shuttle heat shield tiles and wing panels that had been purposefully damaged.

The astronauts worked only on the sample materials in the payload bay and did not touch any of the minor damage caused during liftoff to Discovery's heat shield, which is believed to be in good shape for landing.

NASA lost shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts during the last landing attempt on February 1, 2003.