Astronauts Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick performed their third and final spacewalk on Tuesday night, removing the stiff insulating blankets that had covered the shutters over the seven-window domed lookout that had been put into place the day before.
Then, Patrick unlocked the shutters.
Mission Control ordered the shutters opened while the spacewalkers were still outside, so the two men could take measures if something jammed. Behnken and Patrick remained 10 feet away from the windows after the shutters were raised.
The $27 million observation deck is part of the new space station room, Tranquility. Space shuttle Endeavour delivered the European compartments last week.
The Italian-built dome — 5 feet tall and nearly 10 feet in diameter — is designed to offer 360-degree views of Earth and outer space, as well as the space station itself.
It's not just for the crew's viewing pleasure; a robotic work station will be installed early Thursday, providing direct views for astronauts when they operate the station's big mechanical arm.
Six trapezoid-shaped windows encircle the dome. In the middle is a round window 31 inches across.
During normal operations, the space station crew will be able to keep the round window unshuttered most of the time, as well as a couple others. But the windows which face along the direction in ehich the outpost is orbiting will be closed, except during robotic operations, to protect against a micrometeorite strike.
The six shuttle astronauts began their ninth day in space listening to a recording of Jimmy Buffett's "Window on the World." Mission Control played the song to set the night's mood.
The two spacewalkers had to finish plumbing work on Tranquility before moving on to the dome. They opened up the valves on an ammonia coolant line that they hooked up during Saturday night's spacewalk.
Tuesday night's spacewalk represented the last of the Endeavour crew's space station construction work. The shuttle will depart Friday.
Back at the launch site, meanwhile, NASA has delayed the next space shuttle flight. Discovery had been scheduled to set off in mid-March, but a string of unusually cold weather stalled preparations. Liftoff is now scheduled for April 5.
Only four more shuttle flights remain, before the shuttle program is closed down.
Astronauts take shutter-raising spacewalk
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