The mirror like visor of NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman reflects NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore during their Oct. 15, 2014 spacewalk outside the International Space Station. They are in the process of making repairs and preparing for the installation of docking adapters for future commercial vehicles. Image Credit: NASA
International Space Station (ISS) Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore (USA) and Flight Engineer Terry Virts (USA) will be conducting three spacewalks this week and you can watch live on NASA TV, right here in the video window below. It is exciting to know that Commander Wilmore operated all 17 of the SSEP Mission 6 to ISS experiments comprising the Yankee Clipper II payload.
More on SSEP Yankee Clipper–
Dragon splashes down February 10, 2015. Photocredit: Elon Musk/SpaceX
Yankee Clipper II arrived on Station on January 10, 2015, and returned to Earth on February 10, 2015, aboard SpaceX-5. The SpaceX-5 Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific at 7:44 pm EST off the coast of Baja California, 5.5 hours after departing ISS. Yankee Clipper II was returned to Houston for de-integration and shipment of flight mini-labs to the Mission 6 communities. All Mission 6 student flight teams have now received their flight mini-labs and are in the process of harvesting their experiments. Student delegates from Missions 5, 6, 7 and 8 are expected to attend the 5th Annual SSEP National Conference at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in early July 2015.
If you’ve never seen a spacewalk, with the Earth rotating at 17,000 mph ( 27,600 km/h) beneath the astronauts, this is something you don’t want to miss. The spacewalks are taking place very early in the morning at about 7:10 am EST, on February 21, 25, and March 1.
Provided below is the official NASA Press Release with full details.
WATCH THE SPACEWALKS LIVE RIGHT HERE ON THE NASA TV PORTAL BELOW
COVERAGE BEGINS AT 6:00 am EST ON EACH DAY
NASA Press Release, February 19, 2015
Updated Dates Announced for Space Station U.S. Spacewalks
Three spacewalks on the International Space Station by two American astronauts now are planned for Saturday, Feb. 21; Wednesday, Feb. 25; and Sunday, March 1. The spacewalks will help prepare the space station for two new docking ports that will welcome U.S. commercial spacecraft launching from Florida beginning in 2017.
NASA Television coverage for all three excursions will begin at 6 a.m. EST. The spacewalks are planned to begin each day around 7:10 a.m.
Space station managers decided Thursday to move the first two spacewalks by NASA’s Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts by one day because of added analysis of spacesuits they will wear.
Built by Boeing under contract to NASA, the International Docking Adapters are a critical component of the station’s reconfiguration to ensure long-term docking ports for future commercial crew and other visiting spacecraft. They will permit the standard station crew size to grow from six to seven, potentially doubling the amount of crew time devoted to research aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The two new docking adapters will be launched to the station on a pair of SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft this year. Astronauts will install the first of two adapters on Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 on the forward end of the station’s Harmony module during a future spacewalk. The second adapter will be installed on Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 after it is relocated robotically to the space-facing port of Harmony later this year.
The spacewalks will be the 185th, 186th and 187th in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Wilmore has conducted one spacewalk in his career last October. The spacewalks will be the first of Virts’ career.
For the first two spacewalks, Wilmore will be designated as extravehicular (EV) crew member 1 and wear a spacesuit bearing red stripes. Virts will be EV 2 and will wear a suit with no stripes. For the third spacewalk, they will reverse roles, with Virts as EV 1 wearing red stripes, and Wilmore as EV 2 wearing a suit without stripes.
To view the recorded broadcast previewing the spacewalks, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/1EacQAj
For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For more information about NASA’s commercial crew plans, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew
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The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S., and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with NanoRacks LLC, working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and Subaru of America, Inc. are National Partners on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.
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