| Monday Spacewalk |
| Cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin will venture outside the International Space Station Monday on a spacewalk aimed at outfitting a newly arrived Russian airlock. Click here for live coverage beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Two cosmonauts will inaugurate a new Russian airlock at the International Space Station Monday, setting out on what will be the first spacewalk to be conducted outside the outpost without a visiting shuttle crew present.
The job at hand: Outfitting the exterior of the newly arrived "Pirs" module, which will double as an extra parking place for Russian Soyuz crew transport ships and Progress cargo carriers at the orbital research center.
And with two more spacewalks and a weeklong visit from a Russian-French crew also on tap, the coming month promises to be a busy one for station skipper Frank Culbertson and his two cosmonaut colleagues, Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin.
"We are really excited about the next three spacewalks that are coming up," said Glenda Laws, a lead engineer in NASA's spacewalk projects office at Johnson Space Center in Houston.Added NASA station mission manager Melissa Gard: "There are quite a few things we're trying to get done as we enter one of the most carefully orchestrated periods we've been in since the station began permanent human occupation almost a year ago."
Clad in Russian Orlan spacesuits, Dezhurov and Turin are scheduled to venture out of a hatch on the Pirs, or Pier, module about 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Monday.
With Culbertson watching on from inside the station, the cosmonauts will carry out a hodge-podge of assembly tasks on the exterior of the barrel-shaped module, which was launched from Kazakhstan Sept. 16 and then docked at the station two days later.
Among the work to be done:
- Stringing a communications cable between Pirs, also known as Docking Compartment-1, and the station's Russian-built crew quarters. The cable will enable station crews and ground engineers to monitor Orlan spacesuit systems during sorties outside the station.
- Installing handrails outside two exit hatches on the four-ton Pirs module, which is designed to serve as an orbital portal for spacewalks staged from the Russian segment of the outpost.
Cosmonauts and astronauts will use the handrails to move about the outside of the module. They also will serve as an initial attachment point for braided steel safety tethers that are critical to ensuring that spacewalkers aren't accidentally cast adrift during sorties outside the station.
An access ladder also is to be mounted outside one of the exit hatches.
- Mounting and testing a Russian crane that will be used to move both spacewalkers and cargo around outside the outpost. The so-called Strela boom is similar size and function to the Canadian-built robot arms routinely flown on NASA shuttle flights.
- Setting up a video camera that will enable station crewmates and ground controllers to keep tabs on spacewalkers working outside the Russian segment of the station.
- Positioning a docking target that will serve as a key aim point for approaching Soyuz crew transport and Progress cargo vehicles.
- Installing two antennas that will provide critical radar data when Soyuz and Progress craft pull up and dock at a berthing port at the end of the Pirs module.
Russian mission planners expect the excursion to take at least four to four-and-a-half hours."It's a lot of work to get done, and if it takes a little bit longer than that, they won't be at all surprised or hurt by it," Laws said.
In preparation for the spacewalk, Dezhurov and Turin donned their Orlan suits for a full-up checkout on Friday. The excursion will be the third staged from the outpost but the first to be performed outside the station without a visiting shuttle crew on hand.
U.S. astronaut Jim Voss and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev donned Orlan suits to reposition a docking cone inside a spherical compartment at the end of the station's Russian crew quarters - also known as the Service Module, or Zvezda -- on June 8, but neither ventured outside the outpost.
The only external spacewalk to be staged from the station kicked off July 20 as visiting shuttle astronauts inaugurated the outpost's new $164 million U.S. Quest airlock, which is not yet equipped to service Russian Orlan spacesuits.
Dezhurov and Turin are scheduled to perform a second spacewalk from the new Pirs module on Oct. 15. A Japanese materials science package will be set out on that excursion and a second similar experiment will be swapped out outside the Service Module.
A third and final spacewalk for the station's current crew will take place Nov. 4 or Nov. 5 as Dezhurov and Culbertson finish up outfitting work on the exterior of the Pirs module.
In between those sorties, two Russian cosmonauts and a French astronaut will ferry a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the station.
Flying with French Space Agency representative Claudie Haignere, Victor Afanasyev and Konstantin Kozeev will spend a week onboard the station before flying back to central Asia Oct. 30 in the lifeboat now parked at the outpost.
Culbertson and his crewmates are scheduled to return to Earth Dec. 10.
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