Washington(DPA) : Two astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have completed the first of three planned space walks to start a new construction project vital to adding European elements to the orbiting laboratory.
Station commander Peggy Whitson of the US and her Russian colleague, Yuri Malenchenko, completed an almost seven-hour space walk Friday, the first of three to prepare for delivery of the long-awaited European science module Columbus in December.
Columbus will be ferried by the Atlantis shuttle when it launches on Dec 6, part of a dizzying schedule of shuttle flights being made in a rush to double capacity on the space station by 2010, when NASA’s ageing shuttle fleet is set to retire.
The Discovery shuttle just returned to Earth Wednesday after delivering the Italian-made Harmony module that is crucial to attaching the European-made Columbus.
For reasons of logistics, Discovery left Harmony parked at a temporary location on the space station, and now the job of the space station residents is to put it in its proper place before Atlantis launches.
Friday’s space walk, described as successful by US space agency NASA, involved basic prep-work for moving Harmony: disconnecting cables, capping off receptacles, and moving around an adapter used to interconnect spacecraft and modules that have different docking mechanisms.
Whitson, dressed in a white suit with red stripes, and Malenchenko, wearing all white, also stored trash and other equipment destined for Earth in the Russian Progress module parked at the station.
Two more space walks are scheduled on Nov 20 and 24. The Harmony module resembles a large pipe more than two stories tall and about half as wide. It is equipped with three sleeping racks, which will eventually allow the station to accommodate six people – double the current number.
Recent shuttle missions have focussed on expanding the station’s solar-power-generating capacity to support the new modules and residents.
After Columbus’ delivery in December, two more shuttle flights will deliver Japanese and other European science labs to the orbiting research station. Each new arrival will attach to Harmony.