The Daily Fix: NASA ‘Cable Guys’ Take Third Spacewalk
NASA astronauts had to pull off an intricate balancing act Sunday at the International Space Station. Their tricky excursion, the third in about a week, comes in preparation for a pair of docking ports and crew capsules commissioned by NASA. The space station's new features are expected to debut later this year and in 2017, respectively, according to The Associated Press.
American astronauts Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore installed more than 400 feet of power and data cable on Sunday. Altogether, they've installed more than 750 feet of cable on all three excursions combined. In addition, they installed two sets of antennas within the first hour of the seven-hour trip on Sunday.
The amount of cable work is unparalleled in NASA's history. The government agency hasn't initiated a rapid series of spacewalks since 2011, when astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan completed the final six-hour spacewalk of NASA's 30-year space shuttle program.
Sunday's spacewalk was not without errors. First, a pressure sensor malfunctioned on Wilmore's suit just before he floated out to space. Then, a small amount of water leaked into Virt's helmet when he was in the air lock, which engineers attributed to condensation, deeming it safe.
While Virts is midway through his mission, Wilmore is set to return to Earth next week after a nearly half-year expedition. The timing is significant; this month marks the 50th anniversary of the first spacewalk, when Russian astronaut Alexey Leonov popped open his space capsule and took a 12-minute stroll.
In other news...
Missing Teens Seen on Video: Surveillance video shows three missing teen girls boarding a bus in Istanbul, Turkey. They are suspected of traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State, and the new video footage marks the first sighting of the girls since they left London nearly two weeks ago. (via CNN)
Marches Honor Boris Y. Nemtsov: Thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday to remember opposition leader Boris Y. Nemtsov, who was fatally shot near Red Square on Friday. Russian news media reported that more than 56,000 marchers of varying political backgrounds passed through the route's metal detectors. (via The New York Times)
Search for People's Court Mother Continues: More than three years after the disappearance of Michelle Parker, police in Orlando, Florida, have renewed their search for the mother of three. She was last seen in 2011, when her prerecorded episode of The People's Court aired nationally. In it, she argued with former fiancé Dale Smith over an engagement ring. Smith was once the primary suspect in her disappearance but has never been charged. (via ABC News)
Hit-and-Run Suspect Surrenders: On Saturday night, 21-year-old alleged "street racer" Henry Gevorgyan turned himself in to authorities following a hit-and-run crash on Thursday that left two people dead. Gevorgyan reportedly struck pedestrians with his gray Ford Mustang during a race in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. (via CNN)
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Original article from TakePart
