This is the first of three spacewalks within the next few days, towards readying ISS to receive commercial “space taxis” by 2017. The docks, being built by Boeing, are scheduled to arrive in the summer.
The astronauts laid 103 meters of cable, to install eight power and data lines. The cable’s longest single stretch in space runs to 43 feet. A total of 764 feet (233 meters) of cable will have to be run outside the space station before the installation can be completed. NASA considers this job to be the most challenging of its kind in the station’s history.
Moving around 10 cables with 21 leg-ends is quite a task in itself, but it was further complicated by the fact that some of these cables were not designed to be unplugged and handled in orbit, thus lacking the standard astronaut-friendly EVA connectors.
However, the two spacemen managed to finish their to-do list for this EVA, and by extending their spacewalk by a few minutes, also managed to move their supplies to pre-stage for the next spacewalk, thus saving time the next time around.
The spacewalk, originally scheduled for Friday, 20 February, was postponed to 21 February because astronauts needed more time to check their spacesuits.
After the walk, NASA tweeted, “#Selfie from space! #AstroButch from today’s #spacewalk. @AstroTerry can be seen in the reflection of his visor. pic.twitter.com/L3KruJEIbZ”
