Published: 6:53AM Sunday February 22, 2015 Source: AP <\/p>\n
Spacewalking astronauts routed cables outside the International Space Station today, a tricky and tiring job that needs to be completed before new American-made crew capsules can dock. <\/p>\n
It was the first of three spacewalks planned for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts over the coming week. <\/p>\n
Altogether, Wilmore and Virts have 233 metres of cable to run outside the space station. The longest single stretch, for installation Saturday, was 13 metres. <\/p>\n
\"Broadening my resume,\" Virts observed as he started laying cable. <\/p>\n
NASA considers this the most complicated cable-routing job in the 16-year history of the space station. Equally difficult will be running cable on the inside of the complex. <\/p>\n
The extensive rewiring is needed to prepare for NASA's next phase 418 kilometres up: the 2017 arrival of the first commercial spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the orbiting lab. <\/p>\n
NASA is paying Boeing and SpaceX to build the capsules and fly them from Cape Canaveral, which hasn't seen a manned launch since the shuttle fleet retired in 2011. Instead, Russia is doing all the taxi work - for a steep price. <\/p>\n
The first of two docking ports for the Boeing and SpaceX vessels - still under development - is due to arrive in June. Even more spacewalks will be needed to rig everything up. <\/p>\n
There were so many cables - up to 10 today to deal with - that NASA colour-coded them. That helped the spacewalkers only so much; they expected a lighter blue for one of the lines. <\/p>\n
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'Pretty cool' - astronauts go on space walk to fix Space Station<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published: 6:53AM Sunday February 22, 2015 Source: AP Spacewalking astronauts routed cables outside the International Space Station today, a tricky and tiring job that needs to be completed before new American-made crew capsules can dock. It was the first of three spacewalks planned for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts over the coming week. Altogether, Wilmore and Virts have 233 metres of cable to run outside the space station Continue reading