The second spacewalk in the Discovery mission on the space station has been completed * A strap that came loose caused delays and the postponement of some of the missions

The mission was extended by a day to allow further testing of the shuttle's heat shield * False alarm at the station

STS-131 mission astronauts Rick Masrazzo and Clay Anderson completed a relatively long spacewalk of seven hours and 26 minutes yesterday (Sunday).

A combination of human spacewalk and assistance from the robotic arm, Discovery crew members installed a new Ammonia Tank Assembly (ATA) on the first support beam on the starboard side of the space station. The control center verified that the power connections with the ATA were working.

Due to a fault that was discovered in one of the straps fastening the tank to the shuttle, the astronauts did not have time to complete all the planned tasks at the end of the maximum time allotted for the spacewalk. Among the tasks postponed from today's spacewalk were the connection of the liquid pipes to the ATA and the return of two space debris and micrometeorite protection facilities to Discovery for return to Earth.

Control Center in Houston informed Space Shuttle Discovery Commander Alan Poindexter that mission managers had decided to extend the day to allow scanning of the heat shield while the spacecraft was still docked at the station. The landing is now scheduled for Monday, April 19, at 08:54 EST (15:54 Israel time).

Since the shuttle's Ku-Band communications system is down, the crew will transmit the video footage and laser sensing to the ground for analysis via the space station's transmitters.

Yesterday (Sunday) at 01:24 a.m. Eastern Time (08:24 Israel time) a smoke alarm was sounded in the Zavozde service component on the space station. The commander of the station's 23rd crew, Oleg Katov, quickly assessed that it was a false alarm that was triggered while he was cleaning the air filters in the Zvzda.