Live in orbit: Spacewalkers Snare Experiment

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov are stowing a scientific experiment inside the International Space Station so that it can be returned to Earth.

Lonchakov, who is making his first spacewalk, secured an experiment container inside the Pirs airlock after removing it from the outer hull of the outpost. The container is one of three that were mounted outside the station to study how changes in solar activity affect the growth of microbial bacteria and fungi on materials used to build spacecraft.

It is the second of three that make up the so-called Biorisk experiment. The first of the three containers was retrieved on an earlier spacewalk and already has been returned to Earth.

You can click to enlarge this diagram, which shows an artist's concept of the outside of the Pirs airlock, where the experiment is mounted, as well as a couple of pictures that show what the three containers look like.

Lonchakov retrieved the container while Fincke was setting up electromagnetic protential probe on the other side of the airlock.

The two spacewalkers now are moving on to their next task. They aim to install two science experiments on a small platform on the outer hull of the Zvezda Service Module, which is the core segment of the Russian side of the station.