Space Travel News  
STATION NEWS
Crews Opening Rassvet Hatches And Prepares For Spacewalk

In this "fish-eye" lens view, STS-132 Mission Specialist Garrett Reisman is surrounded by windows and computers in the International Space Station's cupola. Image credit: NASA
by Staff Writers
Houston TX (SPX) May 21, 2010
The hatches between the International Space Station and its new Russian Rassvet module were opened for the first time at 5:52 a.m. CDT Thursday.

Also known as Mini-Research Module 1, Rassvet is almost 20 feet long, 7.7 feet wide and weighs 11,188 pounds. Carrying almost 6,500 pounds of internal and external cargo to the station, Rassvet has eight science work stations and will be used both as a docking and stowage compartment.

Mission Specialists Mike Good and Reisman prepared for their Friday spacewalk, configuring tools and preparing suits and the airlock. The major task of the spacewalk is to replace the final two of the six batteries being changed out on the Port 6 truss.

Four were replaced Wednesday. Spacewalkers also will install an ammonia jumper and take a power and data grapple fixture from Atlantis' cargo bay into the station. It will be installed later on the Zarya module, to provide a base for the station arm to work in that area.

The crew got about four hours of afternoon free time, until the spacewalk procedure review near the end of their workday. The spacewalkers will spend the night in the Quest airlock with its pressure reduced to 10.2 to psi.

Third Spacewalk Starts Friday Morning
The third spacewalk of the mission with astronauts Michael Good and Garrett Reisman is expected to begin at 6:45 a.m. EDT Friday. The spacewalkers will replace the final two batteries on the Port 6 truss.

They also will install an ammonia jumper on the Port 4/Port 5 truss and retrieve a power and data grapple fixture from the shuttle's payload bay. The grapple fixture will be installed later on the Zarya module.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
STS-132 Mission Summary (710 Kb PDF)
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



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


STATION NEWS
Second Spacewalk Of STS-132 Complete
Houston TX (SPX) May 20, 2010
Space shuttle Atlantis astronauts Steve Bowen and Michael Good changed out four of the six 375-pound batteries on the International Space Station's port 6 truss during a 7-hour, 9-minute spacewalk Wednesday, getting a leg up on a major mission priority. Plans called for three of the batteries to be replaced Wednesday, and mission managers hoped the fourth could be changed out. Remaining ... read more







The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - 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