Two American astronauts are setting out to do some orbital hardhat work at the International Space Station as shuttle Endeavour and the outpost fly some 220 miles above the planet.
The first order of business for first-time spacewalker Chris Cassidy is to make his way to the Japanese Kibo science research facility, which is located off the side of the U.S. Harmony module.
Delivered to the station in October 2007, the Harmony module serves as a pressurized passageway to both the Kibo and European Columbus science laboratories.
Cassidy, a former Navy SEAL. will be prepping three science experiments for installation Thursday on the Kibo's exposed facility, also know as the station's porch. The experiments are mounted to a shuttle-launched carrier that is temporarily mounted to the porch.
Cassidy is removing thermal insulation from experiment attach points and also is activating a communications system that will enable data gathered by the experiments to be retrieved by researchers on the station and the ground.
He'll also will put in place the system's communications antenna.
You can watch the spacewalk unfold here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the NASA TV box on the right side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer, and be sure to refresh this page for periodic updates.
The close-up images seen during the excursion are coming from the helmet-cameras of the spacewalkers. A small 18 in the bottom right of the image indicates the image is coming from Cassidy's helmet-cam. A small 16 shows the view is coming from Wolf's helmet-camera.
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