ISS CREW TO TRY ON NEW SUITS BEFORE SPACE OUTING

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MOSCOW, March 21 (RIA Novosti) - The International Space Station crew-Russia's Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao of the USA-will have a training session to wear Orlan M space suits before their last extra-vehicular venture, due March 28.

"On their dress rehearsal, the spacemen will enter the suits via hatches on the Orlan back, and shut the satchels. That will not take them longer than 45 minutes, as the schedule has it. They will need another 25 minutes to check the suit tightness and control gadgetry, and to fit the suits to themselves under a 0.4 atmosphere pressure," a Mission Control Center officer said to Novosti.

"The men will breathe pure oxygen out of cylinders before they put the suits on-that to remove extra nitrogen out of their system, or they may develop decompression sickness. Also known as airemia, it often strikes divers as they rise from the sea too quickly.

"It will take another thirty minutes to drill movement wearing the suits, and another half an hour to put the suits off," said our informant.

The pilots will spend a total five hours and a half outside the station to assemble special equipment for docking the "Jules Verne", a new European cargo craft, to be launched toward the year's end.

Orlan M suits, of Russian design and manufacture, protect spacemen from radiation, vacuum and other adversities outside the spacecraft.

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