2 Discovery spacewakers start project at ISS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Two astronauts are taking a spacewalk at the International Space Station.

Stephen Bowen and Alvin Drew floated outside Monday morning. Bowen, a spacewalking veteran, is a last-minute addition to the visiting crew of shuttle Discovery. He’s filling in for an astronaut who hurt himself in a bicycle crash last month.

Drew, meanwhile, is now the world’s 200th spacewalker. He’s making his first spacewalk.

The two astronauts will install an extension cable and move a broken ammonia pump to a better storage location. And in a lighthearted experiment, they’ll open a small metal canister and expose the interior to the vacuum of space. The bottle will be displayed in Japan.

This is the last flight for Discovery.