NASA
astronaut Leroy Chiao dons a Russian space suit during a spacewalk rehearsal
aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Chiao,
commander of the tenth mission to the ISS, and flight engineer Salizhan Sharipov
stepped outside their orbital home Monday during the second spacewalk of their
six month mission.
The
four-hour and 30-minute spacewalk began at about 1:25 a.m. EST (0625 GMT) as
Chiao and Sharipov – clad in Russian-built Orlan space suits - opened the
outer hatch of the station’s Pirs docking compartment and stepped into space.
During the
extravehicular activity, the ISS Expedition 10 crew installed three navigation antennas
and one GPS device to be used by Jules Verne, an Automated Transfer Vehicle developed
by the European Space Agency to resupply the ISS.
Sharipov
also tossed a small spacecraft dubbed NanoSputnik into a retrograde orbit –
opposite of the direction of the space station’s orbit. The satellite will
spend 100 days relaying information about small spacecraft operations, attitude
sensors and control techniques.
-- Tariq Malik
Credit: NASA/JSC
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