U.S. astronaut Clay Anderson and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin are finishing up work outside the International Space Station and soon should be back in the U.S. Quest airlock.
Anderson and Yurchikhin cleaned some greasy lubricant off a berthing mechanism on the multihatch U.S. Unity module, effectively clearing the way for a conical docking port to be moored to it later this year.
The docking port is going to be moved to the nadir, or Earth-facing, side of the module to make room for the arrival of the U.S. Harmony node, which will be temporarily berthed to the port side of Unity. The Harmony module ultimately will serve as the gateway to European and Japanese science laboratories at the station.
The spacewalkers also had time to work with a Global Positioning System antenna. They soon will be gathering up their tools and heading back to the American airlock. The spacewalk appears as if it will run a bit past the planned 6.5 hours in duration.
IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the NASA screen grab. It shows Clay Anderson (right) and Fyodor Yurchikhin (left) preparing to reenter the U.S. Quest airlock at the International Space Station.
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