Two NASA astronauts have ventured out of the International Space Station in their third spacewalk in just over a week.



Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore went into space on Sunday morning with 122 metres of cable and two antennas to install. Once that's complete, the spacewalkers will have routed nearly 244 metres of power and data lines, all of it needed for future American crew capsules.


Earlier reports from NASA said final task outside ISS was expected to take six and a half hours.


NASA is paying Boeing and SpaceX nearly $7 billion to develop spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the space station. The first manned flight is targeted for 2017. New docking ports will fly up later this year.


Virts and Wilmore's first spacewalk was Feb. 21, their second Wednesday. NASA hasn't conducted such quick spacewalks since its former shuttle days.


Since the shuttles' retirement, the United States has been dependent on Russia to fly crew to and from the station — a

joint project in which 15 nations are involved. NASA aims to break Russia's monopoly before the end of 2017 by buying rides from Boeing and SpaceX.



With files from Reuters