Two NASA astronauts from the International Space Station’s Expedition 42 crew will venture outside the orbital complex on Friday, Feb. 20; Tuesday, Feb. 24; and Sunday, March 1. They will prepare cables and communications gear for new docking ports that will allow future crews launched from Florida on U.S. commercial spacecraft to dock to the space station.

NASA TV will provide comprehensive coverage, beginning with a preview news briefing Wednesday, Feb. 18.

The preview briefing will be broadcast at 2 p.m. EST from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Media may take part in person or by telephone. Reporters who want to ask questions by phone must call Johnson’s newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 1:45 p.m. Wednesday. Cell phones are discouraged.

The panelists for the briefing are:

Kenneth Todd, International Space Station Operations and Integration manager

Tomas Gonzalez-Torres, Expedition 42 lead flight director

Karina Eversley, Extravehicular Activity (EVA) # 29 officer

Sarah Korona, EVA # 30 officer

Arthur Thomason, EVA # 31 officer

Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts will exit the station from the Quest airlock for each of the three spacewalks around 7:10 a.m. NASA TV coverage of the approximately six-and-a-half hour spacewalks will begin at 6 a.m.

Built by Boeing under contract to NASA, the International Docking Adapters are a critical component of the station’s reconfiguration to ensure long-term docking ports for future commercial crew and other visiting spacecraft. They will permit the standard station crew size to grow from six to seven, potentially doubling the amount of time devoted to research aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The two new docking adapters will be launched to the station on a pair of SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft this year. Astronauts will install the first of two adapters on Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 on the forward end of the station’s Harmony module during a future spacewalk. The second adapter will be installed on Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 after it is relocated robotically to the space-facing port of Harmony later this year.

The spacewalks will be the 185th, 186th and 187th in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Wilmore has conducted one spacewalk in his career last October. The spacewalks will be the first of Virts’ career.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information about the International Space Station, its research and i crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station