Spacewalk underway at the ISS
Mission specialist Doug Wheelock rides the station's robotic arm
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Friday, 26, Oct 2007 02:59
Astronauts are undertaking the first spacewalk of the STS-120 mission at the International Space Station (ISS).
Mission specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock are completing tasks to help prepare a module for removal from the space shuttle Discovery's payload bay.
Discovery is at the orbiting outpost on a 14-day mission to connect the part, named Harmony, so that future European and Japanese modules can also be attached.
Today's spacewalk is expected to last for nearly six and a half hours and is the first of five planned walks - the most conducted during a shuttle mission to the ISS.
Mission specialist Paolo Nespoli is the spacewalk coordinator and is assisting the spacewalkers from inside Discovery, while Stephanie Wilson, Daniel Tani and Clay Anderson are controlling the station's robotic arm to remove Harmony from the payload bay.
Harmony is heralded as a significant step in improving the input of numerous countries at the ISS.
"As the station is configured today, there's nowhere to put all the international partner modules until we deliver and activate [Harmony]," lead station flight director Derek Hassman said. "That's the piece that makes the rest possible."
As well as installing Harmony, the STS-120 mission will move a tower of solar arrays to its new position on the orbiting laboratory.
Mr Tani is to stay on at the ISS as a new station crew member, taking the place of current station resident Mr Anderson who will return to Earth with the STS-120 crew on November 6th.