The media reports that people aboard the International space station (ISS)are getting busy again. The astronauts Clay Anderson and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin are in the process of gearing up for the space walk about to start on Monday.
The two astronauts are busy configuring their systems for spacewalk. This will be Anderson’s first walk and Yurchikhin’s third. The goal of this walk is to pack some more stuff up ahead of shuttle Endeavor’s arrival in August. Anderson and Yurchikhin will be preparing all the items that will be send back to Earth. According to NASA, Anderson has been brushing up his Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver photography skills with digital camera. I think this is probably going to be weird. Just imagine taking pictures with your head upside down.
Besides the packing part of the mission, they have a few other objectives to accomplish. During the space walk the duo will try to replace a failed power controller on the station’s truss. Along with this, they will also try to remove a 1,400 pound ammonia reservoir tank and a support post for a video camera. This is done so that everything is ready to go for the upcoming STS-118 mission.
Anderson graduated from Ashland High school back in 1977. He has a masters degree in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa Space University. He graduated back in 1983.Fyodor Yurchikhin seems to be the more experienced guy aboard. His name is all over the space related news. He is an Ashland native as of now.Previously he worked for Russian missions in space.
Hopefully this will be an useful walk and it will get things done. All I can do is wish them good luck. These astronauts were also a part of NASA’s expedition 15.
Image Credits: xnet,Jaxa, Astronautix
