Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and American astronaut Jeffrey Williams are preparing to head outside the International Space Station tonight on an excursion aimed primarily at carrying out some important repair work.
Vinogradov is readying the Russian Pirs airlock, which the two spacewalkers will exit around 6:40 p.m. Williams is closing hatches between segments of the U.S. section of the station. Frequent updates will be posted here throughout the planned five-hour, 41-minute excursion.
The two plan to install a new hydrogen vent valve on the exterior of the station. The work is expected to enable the crew to coax a balky Russian oxygen generation system back into operation.
They also aim to replace a broken video camera on a small rail cart that also serves as a mobile work platform for the station's Canadian-built construction crane. The work is deemed key to the resumption of station assembly during a shuttle mission later this year.
A timeline that details the work to be carried out on the spacewalk is here: EVA_Timeline0601.doc
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