. | . |
Expedition 12 Prepare For Monday Morning Spacewalk
The Expedition 12 crew prepared for the mission's first spacewalk and kept the station ship-shape last week. Station Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev reviewed procedures and prepared tools for the spacewalk, which starts at 9:30 a.m. EST, Monday. Coverage on NASA TV begins at 8:30 a.m. EST. The spacewalk is the first using U.S. spacesuits since 2003. During the 5.5 hour spacewalk, the crew will install a TV camera on the station's port truss. The camera will be an important aid during future assembly work. The crew also will remove an old experiment from the top of the P6 truss, the station's highest point. The experiment measured the electrical environment around the station. The station passed the milestone of five years of human presence aboard the complex. The first station crew, Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, arrived at the complex on Nov. 2, 2000. The crew also focused on hardware maintenance. Last Monday they disassembled and measured air flow in the Trace Contaminant Control System. It keeps a clean, healthy atmosphere by filtering out contaminants in the air. Engineers noticed a reduction in the air flow, and after the crew examined its components, determined that replacement hardware may need to be delivered on a future supply ship. After reassembling the device, the system is running at a slightly reduced capacity, complemented by a fully operational and complementary system in the Russian segment. The crew also replaced a faulty pump in a thermal control loop and smoke detectors in the Zvezda Service Module and cleaned ventilation filters in the Zarya module. Related Links ISS at NASA SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Five years Of ISS Crews Paris (ESA) Nov 03, 2005 Just over five years ago the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft was launched into orbit. There had been 30 previous launches of the Soyuz-TM spacecraft, all of which went to the Mir Space Station. This flight however was a landmark in spaceflight history as it carried the first Expedition Crew to the International Space Station where it arrived and docked two days later.
|
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service. |