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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour retrieved its second satellite in four days Tuesday.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata maneuvered Endeavour's 50-foot robot arm to haul in NASA's $10 million satellite just two days after it was released. It had been collecting science data in space. (635K QuickTime movie)
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Wakata also worked the arm during Saturday's retrieval of a science satellite launched by the Japanese 10 months ago. Both retrievals went without a hitch.
Commander Brian Duffy slowly steered while Wakata grabbed the science probe.
"Koichi's two-for-two, Houston."
----Commander Brian Duffy
During its two days of free flight, the satellite at times led the shuttle by more than 100 miles. It holds four technological experiments, including one on spacecraft contamination and another involving lasers. The data it gathered will be reviewed after Endeavour returns to Earth.
The last task left for Endeavour's six-man crew is Wednesday's spacewalk. Astronauts Leroy Chiao and Winston Scott will practice techniques and evaluate new tools for future space station construction.
It will be the second spacewalk of the mission. Chiao took his first spacewalk Monday. He spent about six-and-a-half hours in the shuttle's cargo bay with astronaut Daniel Barry performing tasks similar to those in the upcoming spacewalk.
Meanwhile, mission control is closely watching a shuttle cooling system that failed Monday because of an ice buildup.
Engineers discovered the problem during Monday's spacewalk. NASA said it would maneuver the shuttle to catch heat generated by the sun and the Earth to try to warm the shuttle and melt the ice, but mission managers said the malfunction could force the space shuttle to cut its mission short by a day.
"We can bake this ice out," said mission operations director Jeff Bantle, but the effort to remove the ice could take a couple of days. "If we could not clear the ice, we'd come home in a fairly orderly manner," he said.
Flight rules dictate that the shuttle return home a day early if the ice cannot be removed, NASA said. Bantle said a decision on whether to come home early probably would not be made until Wednesday.
It wasn't expected to affect Wednesday's spacewalk.
Endeavour is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Saturday.
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