12:11 a.m. Blogger Update: Still no joy with the European EXPOSE-R experiment. Specialists in the Mission Control Center outside Moscow received no telemetry from the experiment when the International Space Station came within range of Russian tracking stations. The Russian Impuls plasma physics is working properly. Both were installed on a platform on the outer hull of the Zvezda Service Module.Spacewalking astronauts mounted a European science experiment outside the Russian section of the International Space Station, but the suitcase-sized package is not sending signals back to Earth.
Station skipper Mike Fincke and flight engineer Yury Lonchakov worked side-by-side to install the experiment on a platform on the outer hull of the Zvezda Service Module, which is the central heart of the Russian side of the outpost.
But no telemetry has been received from the experiment since Fincke and Lonchakov hooked the package up to power and data cables.
The spacewalkers disconnected and reconnected the cables in an effort to coax telemetry from it. But the station now is out of range of Russian tracking stations, so it will be about 45 minutes before they'll know whether the effort to fix the situation worked.
NASA mission commentator Rob Navias said a preflight agreement called for the experiment to be brought back in the station if for some reason it didn't work properly.
The European Space Agency experiment is designed to expose organic material to the extreme environment in low Earth orbit, where temperatures swing from 250 degrees Fahrenheit to Minus 250 degree Fahrenheit and atomic oxygen eats away at man-made spacecraft.
ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge and save the Associated Press/NASA TV images. The top image is a screen grab that shows Mike Fincke working outside the International Space Station. The second shows the Russian side of the station. From left to right are the Zvezda Service Module, a Progress cargo carrier, a Soyuz spacecraft, the Zarya space tug and the U.S. Unity module.
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