|
|
|
|
|
Spacewalkers ready new Russian docking port for use BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: January 14, 2010 
Space station cosmonauts Maxim Suraev and Oleg Kotov completed a successful five-hour 44-minute spacewalk Thursday, completing work to outfit a new Russian docking module. The International Space Station now boasts four ports for visiting Soyuz crew ferry craft and unmanned Progress supply ships, a requirement for expanded crews of up to six astronauts and cosmonauts. The spacewalk, the 137th devoted to station assembly and maintenance, began at 5:05 a.m. EST and ended at 10:49 a.m. when Kotov and Suraev returned to the Pirs docking compartment and closed the hatch. The cosmonauts completed all of their major objectives, rigging docking targets, rendezvous system antennas, handrails and cables to turn the new Poisk module into an active docking compartment. Launched last November, Poisk was attached to the upward-facing port of the Zvezda command module directly across from Pirs, which is attached to Zvezda's Earth-facing, or nadir, port. Additional ports are available on the aft end of Zvezda and on the Zarya module. Suraev and Expedition 22 commander Jeff Williams plan move the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft from Zvezda's aft port to Poisk next Thursday.
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
VIDEO:
NEW CREW WELCOMED ABOARD 