posted 06-24-2013 07:45 AM               

Spacewalk to ready station for new Russian module

Two members of the Expedition 36 crew will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (June 24) to conduct a six-hour spacewalk in preparation for the addition of a new Russian module later this year.

Russian flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin are scheduled to begin the spacewalk at about 9:35 a.m. EDT (1335 GMT) when they open the hatch to the space station's Pirs docking compartment and float outside.

The pair are slated to replace a fluid flow control panel on the station's Zarya functional cargo block (FGB) and install clamps for future power cables as an early step toward swapping the Pirs airlock with a new multipurpose laboratory module. Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency, plans to launch the "Nauka" research facility, airlock and docking port late this year on a Proton rocket.

Yurchikhin and Misurkin also will retrieve several science experiments on the outside of the Zvezda service module.

The spacewalk will be the 169th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the sixth for Yurchikhin and the first for Misurkin. Yurchikhin will wear an Orlan-MK spacesuit with red stripes while Misurkin will wear a suit with blue stripes. Both spacewalkers will be equipped with NASA helmet cameras to provide close-up views of their work.

This is the second of up to six Russian spacewalks planned for this year. Two U.S. spacewalks are scheduled in July.

posted 06-24-2013 06:08 PM               

Cosmonauts complete spacewalk to prepare station for new Russian lab

ISS Expedition 36 flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin completed a 6-hour, 34-minute spacewalk at 3:06 p.m. CDT (2006 GMT) Monday (June 24) when they closed the hatch to the International Space Station's Pirs docking compartment.

The spacewalk began at 8:32 a.m. CDT (1332 GMT) when the hatch to the Pirs module was opened.

Yurchikhin and Misurkin conducted the excursion to prepare for the addition of a new Russian module later this year.

During the spacewalk, they replaced an aging fluid flow control panel on the station's Zarya module as preventative maintenance on the cooling system for the Russian segment of the space station. They also installed clamps for future power cables as an early step toward swapping the Pirs airlock with a new multipurpose laboratory module.

Roscosmos plans to launch a combination research facility, airlock and docking port late this year on a Proton rocket.

Yurchikhin and Misurkin also retrieved two science experiments and installed one new one.