spacetoday.net: ISS crew performs spacewalk

Posted: Sat, Jun 6, 2009, 10:13 AM ET (1413 GMT)
ISS EVA 2009 June 5 (NASA)

Two members of the International Space Station's crew performed a nearly five-hour spacewalk Friday to prepare the station for the installation of another Russian module. Station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mike Barratt started the spacewalk at 3:52 am EDT (0752 GMT), behind schedule due to high carbon dioxide readers in the Russian space suits. During the 4-hour, 54-minute minute spacewalk the two installed docking antennas, a docking target, and electrical connectors on the zenith port of the Zvezda service module. Those systems will be used for the docking of a new Russian module, the Mini-Research Module-2 (MRM2), scheduled for launch late this year. MRM2 is similar to the Pirs module already attached to the station and will provide an additional docking port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.