A spacewalking astronaut tossed two large chunks of junk off the international space station Monday, hurling the old equipment into orbit. Clayton Anderson, a sportsman who enjoys officiating basketball games back on Earth, heaved a 1,400-pound, refrigerator-size ammonia tank away from the station. His first toss was a 200-pound camera mounting. Mission Control declared the tank throw great and "right down the middle."
The Russian commander of the International Space Station and a NASA flight engineer floated out of the station's airlock on Monday to dump overboard some old equipment and prepare the outpost for future assembly missions. Fyodor Yurchikhin and Clay Anderson left the station shortly after 11:30 a.m. UK time to begin a planned 6.5-hour outing. The third station crewmember, Oleg Kotov, remained aboard the orbital complex to operate the station's robot arm, the first Russian cosmonaut to do so.
Credit NASA The space station is currently passing over the south Indian ocean
A successful test adjustment of the International Space Station (ISS)'s orbit using the docked Progress cargo spacecraft's engines was made today.
"The Progress's engines were fired on time and functioned 4 minutes and 54 seconds, just as was planned. According to tentative telemetry data, the orbit's altitude was elevated by the planned 1.7 kilometres" - Nikolai Kryuchkov, a spokesman for the Russian space mission control.
Following a detailed analysis of the test orbit adjustment, a decision will be made on carrying out a full-scale operation for elevating the ISS's orbit, which has been preliminarily planned for July 24. The station's orbit needs to be adjusted to provide optimal conditions for the ISS docking with the Endeavour space shuttle, whose launch is planned for August 7.
A U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will venture outside the International Space Station early Monday for a spacewalking disposal job: tossing a refrigerator-sized coolant tank overboard.
The International Space Station is now accessible in cyberspace. On Thursday, NASA launched its Interactive Space Station Reference Guide, a new tool that features an in-depth look inside and outside of the orbiting laboratory that has never before been seen. The guide provides an up-to-date interactive overview of the station's complex configuration, design and component systems. It includes a video introduction and narration by NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who lived aboard the station for six months as an Expedition 9 science officer and flight engineer.
The Expedition 15 crew held its final spacewalk tagup with spacewalk specialists on Friday. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Clay Anderson will wear U.S. spacesuits for Monday's spacewalk. Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov will maneuver the stations robotic arm, Canadarm2, assisting the spacewalkers. Anderson's first spacewalk and Yurchikhin's third is scheduled to begin at 6:30 a.m. EDT. During the spacewalk Anderson will jettison the 1,400-pound Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS). Other tasks planned for the 6 hour-35 minute spacewalk include installing a video stanchion, jettisoning a video stanchion frame and cleaning the Unity Node's nadir common berthing mechanism.