Image above: Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria is pictured outside the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Feb. 8. Image credit: NASA

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Ham astronaut prepares for record-breaking spacewalk

Despite a temporary power outage on the International Space Station on Sunday morning, the Expedition 14 crew continues its preparations for a Feb. 22 spacewalk.

Over the next few days Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT, will hold several conferences with spacewalk specialists in Russia.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will exit the Russian Pirs docking compartment wearing Russian Orlan space suits. The spacewalkers will prepare a Progress 23 cargo craft for undocking.

An antenna on the Progress 23 failed to retract properly when it docked in October. The spacewalkers plan to remove the antenna or lash it down. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will also set up a materials science experiment on the outside of the Zvezda service module.

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK

As of February 8, Michael Lopez-Alegria has accumulated 61 hours and 22 minutes over nine spacewalks. That is longer than any American astronaut and second only to Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solvyev.

This 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.

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