NASA Television Coverage Set for Russian Spacewalk

[goldenpeach]

Ok, I'm subscribed to the NASA mailing list and I received this (note: the title of this thread was the subject of the mail, the following is a copy/paste of the mail).

Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station will venture outside the orbiting outpost Monday, Aug. 18, for a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk -- the 181st in support of space station assembly and maintenance. NASA TV coverage will begin at 9:30 a.m.

Expedition 40 Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency will exit the Pirs docking compartment airlock about 10 a.m. EDT to deploy a small Peruvian science satellite, and install and retrieve science experiments on the exterior of Russian station modules. This will be the second spacewalk for both cosmonauts.

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

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

I don't even understand how an astronaut can do a spacewalk for 6 and a half hour o_O

[Streetwind]

I don't even understand how an astronaut can do a spacewalk for 6 and a half hour o_O

Very, very slowly.

[lajoswinkler]

Someone's going to pee their diapers.

[goldenpeach]

Very, very slowly.

I know, I wasn't impressed by the time taken but that the fact that astronauts can endure a 6 hour and a half space walk.

Think of it, you may be tired at the end of the day after a long day at work.

Now imagine if you were in outer space, forced to be extremely concentrated, with a 120KG suit on you.

[Nibb31]

An EVA isn't just "put on a suit and go outside". It takes days of technical preparation, writing and learning the procedures, preparing the equipment. Then it takes several hours to don and check the suit as well as prebreathing.

This is why EVAs are typically 5 to 7 hours long, to maximise the actual activity outside, but also because it's damn dangerous and you have to check every move. And yes, it's exhausting too. Nobody said that being an astronaut was easy

The record for the longest EVA is 8 hours 56 minutes, held by Susan Helms in 2007.