Astronauts to Take Fifth Spacewalk at Space Station

Astronauts to Take Fifth Spacewalk at Space Station
Astronauts Tom Marshburn (left) and Christopher Cassidy share duties on the fourth spacewalk on July 24, 2009 during Endeavour's STS-127 mission and its crew's joint activities with the space station. (Image credit: NASA)

Two astronautswill venture outside the International Space Station Monday to tackle somefinal tasks in the fifth and last spacewalk of their mission to the orbitinglaboratory.

AstronautsChris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn are slated to don bulky NASA-issue spacesuits andbegin the planned 6 1/2-hour service call at about 8:28 a.m. EDT (1228 GMT), but could start earlier if they run ahead of schedule. They plan to tackle some last remaining maintenancechores during the excursion.

The two astronautswill use a different type of air-scrubbing canister in their spacesuits thanthe ones used on their last two spacewalks. During those spacewalks, Cassidy?squick, strenuous pace outmatched his air scrubber?s ability to keep his carbon dioxidelevels down.

WhileCassidy, a veteran Navy SEAL who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2001 just afterthe 9/11 terrorist attacks, was never in any danger during those spacewalks, hehas received some good-natured ribbing from the 12 other astronauts with himaboard the linked station and shuttle Endeavour.

?Yes, I am takingquite a bit of teasing about this,? Cassidy said during a televised briefingwith reporters Sunday. ?I have a whole lot of confidence in the suit.?

During today?sspacewalk, Cassidy and Marshburn plan to rewire power cables for the station?s American-builtattitude control system, fix loose insulation on Dextre - a Canadian maintenance robot - and installa pair of television cameras on the outpost?s Japanese Kibo laboratory. Theyalso hope to set up a spare parts storage mechanism need for a future shuttle flight.

Cassidy andMarshburn will both make their third career spacewalk during the orbital work,which will wrap up a five-spacewalk marathon by the space shuttle Endeavour?screw to upgrade the station, deliver spare parts and install a Japanese experimentporch at the end of the $1billion Kibo laboratory.

Endeavourcommander Mark Polansky said that he has total confidence in his spacewalking crewand the support from Mission Control, though his crew will be as vigilant asever during today?s spacewalk.

"I think we're all keenly aware that [spacewalks] carrysome risk to them and so we're going to be very, very deliberate and carefulabout the last [spacewalk],? Polansky said Sunday. ?Because in my book, thelast one you do is always the one you have to watch out for the most.?

Polanskyand his crew are in the homestretch of a 16-daymission to the International Space Station. Endeavour is slated to leavethe space station Tuesday and land in Florida on Friday.

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SPACE.comis providing continuous coverage of STS-127 with reporter Clara Moskowitz andsenior editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for missionupdates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.

 

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.