The two spacewalkers, Richard Arnold and Joseph Acaba, who installed the pin upside down during the second spacewalk, did all they could to free the cargo platform that got stuck after the aforementioned error. 

 

The astronauts took a hammer with them and they indeed needed it. They banged the pin with the hammer but didn’t manage to get it into the proper position. The cargo platform was tethered by the two spacewalkers so it would stop moving around. 

 

The space walk began today at 11:37 a.m. ET. 

 

In other news about the ISS and space shuttle Discovery, another piece of space junk headed towards the spacecrafts and astronauts moved the Discovery in front of the International Space Station, placing it in an "undock" position, and managed to avoid the junk believed to be from a Chinese satellite. The flight detectors repositioned the space shuttle so it won’t be in the piece of debris’ way. A collision of this sort could have had catastrophic consequences for the mission and the spacecrafts. 

 

Today, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station prepared for the third and final space walk of the NASA mission STS-119. Carrying out the spacewalk were two former schoolteachers: Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold II. The two stepped outside the spacecraft and attempted to deploy a jammed equipment storage platform. 

 

The piece of equipment got stuck during the second space walk of the mission which took place on Saturday. Spacewalkers accidentally installed a pin upside down on the platform. They attempted to solve the problem on Saturday, but without success. This time they were more prepared. Acaba and Arnold pried bars and hammers with them in case they need them.

 

In other news about the NASA mission STS-119, tests of the ISS urine recycler were halted on Sunday due to problems that occurred and forced NASA to rethink and reprogram its plans for this mission. 

  

However, despite some problems that were caused mainly by human error and by a considerable amount of bad luck, the main objective of the mission – delivering and installing the final set of solar wings to the ISS – was accomplished. 

 

During the second space walk on Saturday, astronauts accomplished some other tasks such as loosening connections on batteries that are to be replaced during the next space shuttle mission which is scheduled to take place in June. The spacewalkers also installed a GPS navigation antenna that will be used to guide Japan's new cargo ship into its docking port.

 

The only problem, which then led to other difficulties in accomplishing other tasks, was the installation of the pin needed to mount a cargo platform upside down. However, spacewalkers used tethers to fix the attachment and went on with other tasks. 

 

NASA is also hoping that the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery will also complete a few other maintenance tasks to make life easier for the future crews that will come to he ISS, which has been constructed during more than a decade, it involved the collaboration of 16 nations and cost about $2 billion.