SUBMITTED BY ARTHUT N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
*Crew Conducting Spacewalk* Expedition 15 spacewalk Image above: Flight Engineer Clay Anderson exits the airlock at the start of today's spacewalk. Image credit: NASA TV TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Two International Space Station crew members have begun a spacewalk that includes removal and jettison of a refrigerator-size ammonia reservoir.
The scheduled 6½-hour spacewalk from the Quest Airlock began at 6:24 a.m. EDT Monday.
Astronaut Clay Anderson is the lead spacewalker, EV1, wearing the spacesuit with red stripes. Fyodor Yurchikhin, the cosmonaut and station commander, wearing the all-white suit, is EV2. Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov is in the U.S. laboratory Destiny to operate the Canadarm2.
+ Watch spacewalk live on NASA TV javascript:watchNASALiveTV() + Read more about the spacewalk http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/e15_eva_072307.html + Expedition 15 Mission Status Briefing Materials, July 18, 2007 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/exp15_msb_07182007.html
After the spacewalk, a docked Progress 25 cargo craft will fire its thrusters raising the International Space Station’s orbit. This reboost, along with a reboost performed Friday, provides the proper phasing for an upcoming Progress 26 launch and docking. Today's Progress firing also clears the station after the Early Ammonia Servicer is jettisoned and provides flight day three rendezvous opportunities when space shuttle Endeavour arrives on mission STS-118.
The Progress 24 cargo craft will undock from the Pirs docking compartment on Aug. 1 and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Progress 26 is scheduled for launch on Aug. 2 and will reach the station on Aug. 5. Two days later on Aug. 7, space shuttle Endeavour is targeted for launch with a station rendezvous and docking planned for Aug. 9.
+ Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + View crew daily timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html