Bright side of space glitch: No gravity

A robotic-system shutdown interrupted Monday's space walk outside the International Space Station, leaving a Discovery astronaut stuck with an 800-pound pump in his hands for nearly a half-hour.
Good thing it was weightless.
Lead spacewalker Stephen Bowen was in no danger, but it didn't sound pleasant.
Mission Control asked if he was comfortable.
"I'm fine as long as it's not too much longer," Bowen radioed. "How much longer?"
The problem arose at the two-hour mark when a robotic work station shut down in the orbiting lab. The astronauts operating the robot arm - with Bowen perched on its end - rushed to another computer station in another room.
It took a while to get the second station working. For nearly a half-hour, the arm was motionless, with Bowen stuck gripping the big, broken pump that needed to be moved. He dared not let go.
It took several more minutes until the robot arm came back to life. Finally, the operation resumed, and Bowen carried the 5-by-4-foot pump to its new location on the exterior of the space station. He got help from fellow spacewalker Alvin Drew in latching down the pump.
Despite the delay relocating the pump - which failed last summer - Bowen and Drew completed all their major chores. They hooked up an extension power cable that paved the way for Tuesday's planned installation of a small storage room at the space station, added a pair of extra rails for the mobile robot arm, and provided extra clearance for a video camera. They even had time for an education experiment.
As the 61/2-hour space walk wrapped up, Drew twisted the top of a small bottle, ridding it of air and filling it with the vacuum of space. Bowen captured the event on camera. NASA calls the Japanese experiment "message in a bottle."
There's no message inside, but the bottle is signed by astronauts who have flown in space. It will be returned to Earth aboard Discovery next week and put on display in Japan. It's an effort by the Japanese Space Agency to increase public interest.
Late Monday, Discovery's astronauts learned they will get an extra day in space, with their shuttle's final mission extended to 12 days, until next Tuesday.
Only two shuttle trips remain, one each by Endeavour and Atlantis. Endeavour was moved Monday into NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida; it should head to the pad next week for an April 19 launch.