A pair of U.S. astronauts are working outside the International Space Station, and you can get an up-close-and-personal look through small cameras the size of lipstick tubes that are built in to their spacesuit helmets.
A faint No. 16 in the bottom righthand corner of the NASA TV image indicates that live views are coming from the helmet-cam of Endeavour mission specialist Rick Mastracchio. The No. 18 indicates the views are from the helmet-cam of U.S. station flight engineer Clay Anderson.
You can watch a live webcast of the spacewalk by clicking the link below the image above or the Mission Webcast headline at the top right of the page. Doing so will launch our NASA TV viewer. Start-up time is about 20 seconds.
Introduced on the STS-97 mission back in December 2000, the helmet-cams enable crewmates and engineers in NASA's Mission Control Center to view station assembly work through the eyes of the spacewalkers. They also enable the rest of us on the ground to vicariously become "armchair astronauts."
Wielding a pistol grip power tool, Mastracchio is unbolting a radio communications antenna from the station's P-6 truss so that it can be moved to another segment on the port side of the station's central truss.
The work will help clear the way for the P-6 truss to be mounted on the far left end of the truss during NASA's next shuttle mission, which is scheduled for launch Oct. 23.
Anderson is working over at the P-1 truss. He's preparing the site where the radio antenna and associated hardware will be installed.
IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the NASA screen grab. The faint No. 16 in the bottom righthand corner indicates the image is from the helmet-cam of Endeavour mission specialist Rock Mastracchio.
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