Busy Week On Iss Cosmonauts Prepare For Spacewalk Spacex Cargo Craft Set For Departure

Busy week has just started for the international crew on the International Space Station (ISS) as a pair of Russian cosmonauts suited up for a dry run of Wednesday's spacewalk while SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will hang on to the ISS for a few more days. Commander Max Suraev and Flight Engineer Alexander Samokutyaev spent Monday readying the Russian Orlan spacesuits they will wear when they exit the Pirs docking compartment for a six-hour spacewalk. Meanwhile, the departure of SpaceX CRS-4 mission has been delayed until Saturday, Oct. 25, because of high sea states in the splashdown and recovery zone west of Baja California.

The Russian duo donned their spacesuits for a spacewalk dry run. They checked suit controls and communications gear and conducted preliminary leak checks.

They are scheduled to open the Pirs docking compartment hatch to the vacuum of space at 9:24 a.m. EDT to begin the third spacewalk for Expedition 41.

The spacewalkers will be outside the station's Russian segment to jettison science and communications gear no longer being used. They will also remove a protective cover from a biological exposure experiment, collect samples of particulate matter on the Pirs docking compartment and photograph the station's Russian exterior.

The spacewalk will be the 184th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the third in as many weeks for Expedition 41 crew members, and the second career spacewalks for both Suraev and Samokutyaev.

Suraev will be designated as extravehicular (EV) crew member 1 and will wear an Orlan suit bearing red stripes. Samokutyaev will be designated as EV-2 and will wear a suit with blue stripes.

The crew spent part of the weekend loading non-critical items into Dragon which is berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node.

An Expedition 41 crew member aboard the International Space Station photographed this view of the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship docked to the nadir port of the Harmony node as the station's Canadarm2 and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator prepare to remove external cargo from Dragon. Earth's horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene. Credit: NASA

The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to detach from the Earth-facing side of the station's Harmony module and unberth through commands sent by robotic ground controllers in mission control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston operating the Canadarm 2 robotic arm. Mission control will maneuver Dragon into place then turn it over to Expedition 41 robotic arm operators Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore of NASA for release, which is scheduled for 9:56 a.m. EDT.

Dragon is the only space station resupply spacecraft able to return to Earth intact. It will return about 3,276 pounds of cargo, including science samples from human research, biology and biotechnology studies, physical science investigations and education activities sponsored by NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, the nonprofit organization responsible for managing research aboard the U.S. national laboratory portion of the space station.

Dragon will execute three thruster firings to move away from the station to a safe distance for its deorbit burn at 2:43 p.m. The capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean around 3:39 p.m.