Image above: Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin (left) and Flight Engineer Clay Anderson work with a spacesuit in the Quest Airlock of the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

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Spacewalk dry run planned for Thursday

The Expedition 15 crew on Thursday will do a dry run of its spacewalk planned for Monday.

The crew is also configuring the Quest airlock systems.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, RN3FI, and Flight Engineer Clay Anderson, KD5PLA, will put on their U.S. spacesuits for Thursday’s dry run activities. Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov will test his robotic skills and manoeuvre the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, to a pre-determined position.

During Monday’s spacewalk one of Anderson’s tasks is to jettison the 1,400-pound Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS).

A docked Progress 25 cargo craft will fire its thrusters on July 21 and 23 raising the International Space Station’s orbit. The reboost provides the proper phasing for an upcoming Progress 26 launch and docking. The Progress firing also clears the station after the EAS is jettisoned and provides flight day three rendezvous opportunities when space shuttle Endeavour arrives on mission STS-118.

The Progress 24 cargo craft will undock from the Pirs docking compartment on August 1 and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Progress 26 is scheduled for launch on August 2 and will reach the station on Aug. 5. Two days later on August 7, space shuttle Endeavour is targeted for launch with a station rendezvous and docking planned for August 9.