ISS spacewalks OK'd

The crew of the International Space Station is go for spacewalks.

For the time being, spacewalks will hook their safety tethers to the support bases of the handrails rather than the tube-like rails themselves. They will have to use a smaller hook on their tethers to make the attachment work.

The precaution is temporary, and would only be employed if an emergency forces the crew to do an unplanned spacewalk in the next month or so.

By then, NASA hopes to complete analyses aimed at alleviating concerns that the tube portion of the rails might break and let a spacewalker drift off into space.

The next planned spacewalk is not until July, when space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to arrive on the second post-Columbia test flight.

Station managers hope to remove the tether limitations by the end of April.

Spacewalks still are banned from the Russian airlock because canisters used to clean poisonous carbon dioxide from inside the Russian suits can't be found.