NASA astronauts Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen participate in the mission's first session of extravehicular activity.
A robotic arm breakdown left one of them stranded for almost 20 minutes.
"How much longer?" asked veteran astronaut Steve Bowen after the Robotic Work Station in the ISS's Cupola, the central command post for robotic operations, shut down two hours into the walk.
Bowen and Drew stayed calm and got plenty of work done after the robotic arm failure, ending the 6.5-hour excursion with a lighthearted experiment to bottle some outer space for Japan.
NASA played The Police song "Message in a Bottle" to serenade the two Americans floating outside the ISS as Drew opened and then recapped a metal cylinder that had been signed by many astronauts.
The space capsule will return to Earth to go on display, as part of a joint effort by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, to capture the vacuum of space.
Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew wave as they perform maintenance work on the International Space Station
Steve Bowen (L) and Alvin Drew carry out maintenance work on the International Space Station
Pictures: NASA
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