Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Mikhail Kornienko will exit the International Space Station Monday night for a six-hour spacewalk. The pair will emerge from the Pirs docking compartment and work outside the Zarya FGB and Zvezda service modules.
This will be the first Expedition 24 spacewalk. NASA TV coverage begins at 10:00 p.m. CDT (0400 GMT July 27). The spacewalk is set to begin at 10:45 p.m. and end around 4:40 a.m. CDT on July 27.
They will outfit the Rassvet module's Kurs automated rendezvous system, install cables and remove and replace a video camera.
Kurs is the Russian radio telemetry system that enables automated dockings of unmanned spacecraft such as the Progress resupply vehicle.
The new video camera will document the rendezvous and docking of future Automated Transfer Vehicles to the aft end of the Zvezda service module.
On Friday, Yurchikhin and Kornienko put on their Orlan spacesuits and performed a dry run of the spacewalk activities. From inside the Pirs docking compartment they checked out the Orlan systems, practiced translation movements and tested their mobility.
The next spacewalk will take place Aug. 5 with Flight Engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Doug Wheelock. The astronauts will exit the Quest airlock and install a Portable Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) on the Zarya module extending the reach of Canadarm2, the station's robotic arm. They also will jettison old multi-layer insulation removed for the PDGF install and mate power connectors to Zarya.