Three astronauts of the International Space Station Expedition 41 crew will conduct two spacewalks outside the orbiting laboratory Tuesday, Oct. 7 and Wednesday, Oct. 15 to replace a failed power regulator and relocate a failed cooling pump. NASA Television will provide comprehensive coverage, beginning with a preview briefing Friday, Oct. 3.
The preview briefing will be broadcast at 2 p.m. EDT from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Reporters may take part in the briefing at participating NASA centers. Media who wish to ask questions by phone must call Johnson’s newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 1:45 p.m. Friday.
Briefing participants are:
— Kenny Todd, space station integration operations manager
— Scott Stover, NASA space station flight director
— Jaclyn Kagey, U.S. spacewalk 27 officer
— Kieth Johnson, U.S. spacewalk 28 officer
NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency will exit the station’s Quest airlock for the Oct. 7 spacewalk at about 8:10 a.m., both wearing U.S. spacesuits. NASA TV coverage of the planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk will begin at 7 a.m. Wiseman will be extravehicular crew member one (EV1) and will wear a suit bearing red stripes. Gerst will be EV2 and wear a suit with no stripes. The astronauts will move a failed cooling pump from temporary to long-term storage on the station’s truss. They also will install a new relay system that will provide backup power options to the mobile transporter, which moves the large robotic arm around the out outside of the space station.
Wiseman will venture outside Quest again Oct. 15, with NASA Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore, a new arrival to the space station, for another six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The two-man team will replace a sequential shunt unit electronics box, a voltage regulator, on the starboard truss that failed in mid-May. Although the station has since operated normally on seven of its eight power channels, the voltage regulator replacement is considered a high priority.
Wiseman, again designated EV1, and Wilmore, who will serve as EV2, also will relocate external cameras and equipment to begin configuring the station for international docking adapters for future commercial crew vehicles. Coverage of this second spacewalk begins at 7 a.m. with the spacewalk expected to begin around 8:10 a.m.
The spacewalks will be the 182nd and the 183rd in support of station assembly and maintenance. All three astronauts will be conducting the first spacewalks of their careers.
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