posted 08-20-2012 08:45 AM               

Cosmonauts to spacewalk outside space station

Expedition 32 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, will embark on Monday (Aug. 20) on the 163rd spacewalk in support of assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station.

The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 9:40 a.m. CDT (1440 GMT).

Wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits, Padalka and Malenchenko will float outside the Pirs docking compartment airlock for the planned 6.5 hour spacewalk to relocate the Strela-2 hand-operated crane from the Pirs docking compartment to the Zarya module, preparing Pirs for its replacement with a new laboratory and docking module.

The Strela-1 boom, which will be used as part of the spacewalk, was moved from Pirs to the Poisk Mini-Research Module in February.

After completing the Strela transfer, the two spacewalkers will work on finishing the installation of micrometeoroid debris shields on the Zvezda service module and deploying a small science satellite.

Padalka has conducted eight previous spacewalks and will wear a suit bearing red stripes. Malenchenko has conducted four spacewalks and will wear blue stripes.

posted 08-20-2012 10:11 AM               

The start of today's spacewalk, which was scheduled for 9:40 a.m. CDT, was delayed due to a suspected pressure leak along the inner hatches of the space station's Russian segment modules that were closed to support the spacewalk.

After troubleshooting the issue, spacewalkers Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko have been given the "go" to begin depressurizing the Pirs airlock.

Update: With the hatch confirmed open, today's spacewalk began at 10:37 a.m. CDT (1537 GMT).

posted 08-20-2012 05:04 PM               

Cosmonauts complete first Expedition 32 spacewalk

Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko completed the first spacewalk of the International Space Station's Expedition 32 mission at 4:28 p.m. CDT Monday, five hours and 51 minutes after they began.

The two spacewalkers completed all three primary objectives set out for them, including relocating the Strela-2 boom, installing additional micrometeoroid debris shields and deploying a small Sphera satellite that will help verify ground-based debris tracking models.

Running ahead of their planned schedule, Padalka and Malenchenko also completed two "get-ahead" tasks, attaching two struts to an EVA ladder and retrieving an external experiment.

An attempt to retrieve a materials science experiment was thwarted when the suitcase-like device would not fold-up as expected. It was left for a future spacewalk.