[sarex] EXP 14 - Record Setting Spacewalks

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Record Setting Spacewalks*

ISS014-E-13326 --- Sunita Williams during a session of extravehicular 
activity Image above: Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, Expedition 14 flight 
engineer, uses a digital still camera to expose a photo of her helmet 
visor. Also visible in the reflections in the visor is a solar array 
wing. Image credit: NASA

TO VIEW IMAGE  GO TO: 
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

With all scheduled tasks accomplished, Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and 
Flight Engineer Suni Williams finished a 6-hour, 40-minute spacewalk 
Thursday. Their completed tasks will allow for the attachment of a cargo 
platform during the STS-118 mission this summer and relocation of the P6 
truss during STS-120 later this year. Connection of remaining cables to 
the Destiny laboratory will allow future visiting shuttles to derive 
power from the station to extend their missions.

The crew now begins to review Russian procedures for the next spacewalk 
on Feb. 22. Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin will work 
on an antenna on the Progress 23 cargo ship docked at the aft port of 
the Zvezda service module. The antenna did not properly retract when 
that spacecraft docked in October. They will try to secure or remove the 
antenna to avoid any interference when the Progress 23 undocks in April. 
The spacewalk will be the 10th for Lopez-Alegria, a new record for a 
U.S. astronaut.

The three spacewalks from the Quest airlock in U.S. spacesuits and a 
Russian spacewalk on Feb. 22 will be the most ever done by station crew 
members during such a short period and will mark five spacewalks in all 
for Expedition 14, a record for any expedition.

+ Read more about the spacewalks 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/exp14_evas.html>