Updated: Sun Nov. 22 2009 4:08:23 PM
ctvottawa.ca

Just hours after Randy Bresnik made his first spacewalk at the International Space Station, the shuttle astronaut had another momentous occasion to celebrate: the birth of his daughter.

His wife Rebecca, who was a day overdue, gave birth at a Houston hospital Saturday night. The couple also have a three-year-old son, Wyatt.

"At 11:04 (12:04 a.m. Eastern) last night, Abigail Mae Bresnik joined the NASA family and momma and baby are doing very well," said Bresnik in a message from orbit around 6:15 a.m. Sunday, thanking mission control and the flight surgeon for their help.

"On behalf of the planet Earth ground team, please accept our heartfelt congratulations," answered fellow astronaut Stan Love, who was in charge of communicating with the astronauts at that time.

Second to celebrate childbirth in space

The wakeup song for the astronauts Sunday morning was "Butterfly Kisses", which Rebecca chose for her husband as a celebration. Lyrics include the words, "There's two things I know for sure/She was sent here from heaven and she's daddy's little girl."

After five years of failing to conceive a child naturally -- Wyatt is adopted -- the couple has said in several interviews that they were surprised and overjoyed by Abigail's arrival.

In a NASA interview, Rebecca said she was "a little disappointed" her husband could not make the birth, but understood the timing couldn't be helped. Her husband trained for his mission for several years prior to the Nov. 16 liftoff, the same week of Abigail's birth.

The couple are both employees at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Rebecca heads the agency's international law division.

Bresnik is the second United States astronaut flying in space while his child was born; in June 2004, Mike Fincke and wife Renita welcomed daughter Tarali while he was on a mission aboard the station.

During the six-hour spacewalk on Saturday, Bresnik requested that mission control hold off on any news of the birth until after he was finished, lest he be distracted while he was 'outside'.

Abigail was born after the extra-vehicular activity, though, and Bresnik received the news privately. She weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

Spacewalk the first of two for Bresnik

Bresnik and fellow astronaut Mike Foreman motored through their assigned checklist on the spacewalk, hooking up wireless video and antennas and setting up areas for an electrical hazard monitor and spectrometer.

The astronauts also got ahead on some of the tasks for Bresnik's next venture outside the station hatch on Monday.

Their spacewalk was slightly delayed by a false depressurization alarm inside a Russian research area on the station, which woke up the astronauts Friday night and disrupted preparations. NASA has since disabled the alarm and is looking into the cause.

Space shuttle Atlantis will remain docked with the station until Wednesday, and is scheduled to land on Friday.