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An Extravehicular Activity (EVA) was performed on Space Transportation System 69 (STS-69) to evaluate International Space Station (ISS) assembly and maintenance techniques and ISS EVA tools. The evaluations, collectively called EVA Development Flight Test Two (EDFT-02), were accomplished by operating an EVA task board mounted in the Space Shuttle payload bay and by utilizing ten new and six modified EVA tools. The EVA task board provided an evaluation platform for ten different ISS assembly and maintenance tasks. The EVA crewmembers, Jim Voss and Mike Gernhardt, assessed their ability to perform these tasks from a fixed-foot restraint, from a robot arm foot restraint, and/or while free-floating. All fourteen primary EVA task board objectives and three of five secondary objectives were completed during the 6 hour and 46 minute EVA. Approximately seventeen tasks involving the new and modified EVA tools were planned, and all but one major and one minor task were completed.

As the Space Station Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR) milestones approach, critical technology decisions lie ahead for all major systems to be flown on the vehicle. In the area of thermal management, two-phase heat transport technology has been baselined to meet the Space Station need for transporting large heat loads, providing flexibility to a wide range of potential users, accommodating on-orbit growth, and operating reliably for long life. The thermal test bed (TTB) is an evolutionary program, providing the Space Station program with critical elements of thermal technology development and integrated system performance assessment. Initiated formally in 1984, the TTB has provided confidence in verifying the readiness of two-phase thermal technology for use on the phase I configuration of the Space Station.