ISS - Expedition 45 Mission patch.
October 27, 2015
NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren will begin the first of two spacewalks Wednesday morning to service and upgrade the International Space Station. The duo have completed reviewing their procedures, preparing their U.S. spacesuits and organizing their tools inside the U.S. Quest airlock. NASA Television will cover the spacewalk live beginning at 6:30 a.m. EDT.
Image above: NASA Astronauts Scott Kelly (left) and Kjell Lindgren will conduct two spacewalks to upgrade and service the International Space Station on Oct. 28 and Nov. 6. Image Credit: NASA.
They will spend six hours and 30 minutes to cover the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer with a thermal blanket, lubricate the leading edge of the Canadarm2 and route power and data cables for a future docking port. This will be the first spacewalk for both astronauts who will also be assisted from inside the station by Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. Monitoring the activities from the ground will be Tracy Caldwell, a veteran of three spacewalks.
NASA Television: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Image above: Astronaut Kjell Lindgren performs high-flying, advanced plumbing work inside the International Space Station’s Tranquility module. Image Credit: NASA TV.
Meanwhile, on the Russian side of the orbital laboratory, the trio of veteran cosmonauts stayed focused on their ongoing maintenance and science activities. Sergey Volkov spent time assisting Kelly and Lindgren today then looked at how the immune system is affected by stress in space. One-Year crew member Mikhail Kornienko explored blood circulation adaptation then worked on cargo transfers from the Progress 60 resupply ship. Oleg Kononenko studied material physics as he observed plasma crystals and liquid crystals.
3D Animation of Oct. 28 Spacewalk Activities
Video above: This 3D animation depicts the activities spacewalkers Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren will perform Oct. 28. The duo will service the Canadarm2 robotic arm, route cables for a future docking port and place a thermal cover over a dark matter detection experiment. Video Credit: NASA/JSC.
Related links:
International Space Station (ISS): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/742.html
Immune system study: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/22.html
Blood circulation adaptation study: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/11.html
Plasma crystals: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/process/02.html
Liquid crystals: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/773.html
Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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