Second Spacewalk Set for Wednesday

Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt completed the first of two Russian spacewalks planned for June at 8:46 a.m. EDT Friday. The second spacewalk is set for Wednesday at 2:45 a.m.

Friday’s spacewalk started late after data showed slightly elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the Russian Orlan spacesuits. The spacewalkers reported they felt fine and went on to work outside the International Space Station for 4 hours, 54 minutes.

Padalka and Barratt installed docking antennas, a docking target and electrical connectors on the Zvezda service module in preparation for the arrival of a new module in November. Barratt then rode on the end of the Strela boom, a manually operated crane, to take photographs of the antennas. The Russian Mini-Research Module-2 will dock automatically to the zenith port of Zvezda and will serve as an additional docking port for Russian vehicles.

Wednesday’s spacewalk is scheduled to last about an hour with Padalka and Barratt set to replace a Zvezda hatch with a docking cone. The excursion will take place internally with the spacewalkers attached to umbilicals in Zvezda for life support.

FMI: www.nasa.gov