Live in Orbit: Spacewalkers Tread Cautiously

Spacewalkers Mike Fincke and Yury Lonchakov are carefully working outside the Russian segment of the International Space Station, aiming to install two science experiments without bumping a fragile solar array.

The high-voltage array juts from the side of the Russian Zvezda Module, which is a command-and-control center that doubles as crew quarters. It is the core of the Russian section of the international outpost.

The solar array -- which was folded up last year to allow for the extension of a U.S. radiator -- are close to a special platform the spacewalkers are installing the experiments upon.

Russian specialists rotated the array to give the spacewalkers more room to work.

One of the experiments is known as Expose-R. It is designed to expose organic material to the space environment. Here's a NASA graphic that shows what the experiment looks like and where it is to be mounted:

The second experiment is called Impuls. It is designed to gauge the electromagnetic potential around the station. The experiment is not related to the special probe that was installed outside the Pirs docking compartment earlier in the excursion. Here is a NASA graphic that shows the experiment and where it is to be installed oustide the Zvezda module:

The spacewalkers are moving right along their timeline as they pass the two hour mark in their excursion.

Check out the detailed timeline for the spacewalk here: Spacewalk Timeline.

You can watch the spacewalk live here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the NASA TV box at the righthand side of this page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage. Be sure to refresh this page for periodic updates.

And you can read more about the spacewalk and the objectives of the current tour of duty on the station here in this Expedition 18 Press Kit.

Click the hyperlink to download your own copy.