 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Astronauts complete fourth spacewalk
Washington (AFP) July 24, 2009 Two astronauts finished a fourth spacewalk Friday outside the International Space Station orbiting high above Earth, and completed tasks left undone after the last sortie was cut short. Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy returned to the station's decompression chamber at 2106 GMT, after installing new batteries on one of the oldest of the four solar arrays that power the space station some 350 kilometers (217 miles) above Earth, NASA said. The six newly installed batteries "function as expected," the US space agency said, noting that the old batteries were stored on a cargo carrier that will be placed in the space shuttle Endeavour's cargo barrier later in the day. On Wednesday, NASA had ordered spacewalking astronauts back into the space station 30 minutes early after a spacesuit was found to be working improperly. Higher than normal carbon dioxide levels were found in Cassidy's spacesuit due to a problem with its lithium hydroxide canister, the US space agency said, adding he had not been in any danger. But Cassidy and his partner Dave Wolf had only managed to replace two of the six batteries, so part of Friday's outing was to install the remaining four. Each ISS battery measures 40 inches by 36 inches by 18 inches (101 centimeters by 90 centimeters by 45 centimeters), weighs 375 pounds (170 kilos) and is designed to last 6.5 years. A fifth and last spacewalk for Endeavour astronauts is set for Monday. Endeavour took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 15 for a 16-day mission with a crew of six Americans and one Canadian to help complete construction of the ISS. On the second Endeavour spacewalk Sunday, the astronauts moved equipment from Endeavour onto the ISS and repaired a malfunctioning toilet on the orbiting station. During a first spacewalk Saturday, astronauts completed construction of the Japanese Kibo science lab during an outing that lasted five and a half hours. The ISS should be completed in 2010, which also is the target date for the retirement of the US fleet of three space shuttles. Endeavour is expected to land back on Earth on July 31. The launch of the next shuttle, Discovery, to the ISS is planned for August 18 at 4:25 am (0825 GMT). Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Station at NASA Station and More at Roscosmos S.P. Korolev RSC Energia Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Station News at Space-Travel.Com
Payload Transfer To Kibo CompleteHouston TX (SPX) Jul 24, 2009 Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and his space shuttle Endeavour crewmates completed transferring three payloads from a cargo carrier to Kibo's Exposed Facility. This was the first operational use of the Kibo robotic arm. MAXI, SEDA-AP and ICS all are installed on the Exposed Facility. MAXI is the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image experiment and SEDA-AP is the Space ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal 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 SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook