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Station astronauts set for Russian spacewalk BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 1, 2006 Space station commander Pavel Vinogradov and astronaut Jeff Williams are gearing up for a six-hour spacewalk this evening to retrieve externally mounted experiments, to install a new vent for a Russian oxygen generator and to replace a camera mounted on the U.S. segment. They also will perform a bit of maintenance, inspecting cables that may be interfering with the operation of an antenna and a rocket thruster. This will be the 65th spacewalk devoted to space station assembly and maintenance and the first by the Expedition 13 crew. Going into today's excursion, 41 U.S. astronauts, 12 Russian cosmonauts, one Japanese and one Frenchman had logged 384 hours and 23 minutes of spacewalk time supporting the international space station. Vinogradov, whose call sign is EV-1, will be wearing a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red markings. Vinogradov is a veteran of five previous spacewalks, all aboard the old Russian Mir space station. Williams, who has one previous spacewalk to his credit during an earlier shuttle visit to the ISS, will be wearing an Orlan spacesuit with blue markings. His call sign is EV-2. Here is a summary timeline of tonight's activity (times approximate; in EDT):
Thursday, June 1
01:55 p.m. Pirs airlock module checkout Friday, June 2
12:30 p.m. Pirs hatch closed The first item on the agenda after opening the hatch to the Russian Pirs docking module will be to set up a manually powered telescoping boom the Russians use to move cosmonauts and equipment from point to point around the hull. Williams will operate the boom, moving Vinogradov to the first work site. Once in position, Vinogradov will remove a cap to open a new hydrogen vent port for the Elektron oxygen generator. He then will thread on a new vent orifice and a cover, bypassing a clogged vent that has been causing restart problems for the Elektron. Williams then will move the commander to the back section of the Zvezda command module so Vinogradov can photograph a cable that is thought to be interfering with the operation of a thruster cover. Because the cover won't retract fully, the thruster cannot be used. Vinogradov then plans to retrieve an experiment package before moving across the Zvezda's module's aft section to inspect another cable that may be interfering with the operation of an antenna. Williams, meanwhile, will remove two other externally mounted experiment packages. Once Vinogradov completes his work at the rear of the command module, he will get back on the boom and Williams will bring him back to the Pirs airlock where both spacewalkers will collect the equipment needed to replace a camera on a railcar used to move the station's main robot arm along a solar array truss. Again, Williams will move Vinogradov, on the Russian boom, to the front of the Russian segment. Williams then will use handrails to join him and both will move onto the U.S. segment. At that point, spacewalk command and communications will switch from Moscow to Houston. After retrieving a foot restraint from a toolbox, both spacewalkers will move across the U.S. airlock and onto the solar array truss for the camera replacement. Williams will do the actual swap out, supported by Vinogradov. The spacewalkers then will stow the foot restraint and make their way back to the Pirs airlock module. After stowing the boom, Vinogradov and Williams will re-enter Pirs, close the hatch and begin the repressurization process.
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The Boeing Delta 4 rocket launches from pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the GOES-N spacecraft, beginning a new era in weather observing for the Americas.
As night fell over Kennedy Space Center on May 19, space shuttle Discovery reached launch pad 39B to complete the slow journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Discovery will be traveling much faster in a few weeks when it blasts off to the International Space Station.
The November 1985 flight of space shuttle Atlantis began with a rare nighttime blastoff. The seven-member crew, including a Mexican payload specialist, spent a week in orbit deploying three communications satellites for Australia, Mexico and the U.S. And a pair of high-visibility spacewalks were performed to demonstrate techniques for building large structures in space. The crew narrates the highlights of STS-61B in this post-flight crew film presentation.
Eight astronauts, the largest crew in history, spent a week in space during the fall of 1985 aboard shuttle Challenger for mission STS-61A, the first flight dedicated to the German Spacelab. The crew worked in the Spacelab D-1 laboratory conducting a range of experiments, including a quick-moving sled that traveled along tracks in the module. A small satellite was ejected from a canister in the payload bay as well. The astronauts narrate the highlights of the mission in this post-flight film.