MISSION CONTROL (Moscow region), February 22 (RIA Novosti) - Two members of the 14th crew of the International Space Station have repaired a malfunctioning antenna during a spacewalk, mission control said Thursday.
ISS commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin started their scheduled spacewalk to repair malfunctions that occurred when the Progress M-58 docked with the station. They were expected to spend about six hours in outer space wearing Russian-made Orlan-M spacesuits.
About 40 minutes into the spacewalk, Tyurin discovered a problem with his suit's evaporator system, responsible for temperature control, saying he was feeling "a little cold."
Ground control told Tyurin to continue working to schedule for one hour and then report any further problems.
It said later the problem had been fixed and the temperature was now back to normal.
It is the fourth spacewalk conducted by the crew since the beginning of the year. During the previous spacewalk February 8, Lopez-Alegria and another U.S. crewmember, Sunita Williams, removed and jettisoned two large shrouds and installed attachments for cargo carriers.
This time, the U.S. and Russian astronauts repaired damage caused by a mishap during the docking of a previous cargo spacecraft with the ISS October 27, when a guiding antenna failed to fold, and performed a number of routine tasks in preparation for the next U.S. shuttle mission to the station, scheduled for March 15.
The current crew of the world's sole orbital station comprises U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who arrived at the station September 20, and U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams, who replaced the European Space Agency's German astronaut Thomas Reiter in December 2006, and who will remain on the ISS for another several months.
The next ISS expedition will comprise two Russian astronauts, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, and U.S. millionaire Charles Simonyi, who is set to fly to the ISS as a space tourist.
A Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft with the 15th ISS crew will be launched April 7, 2007 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the Russian Space Agency said February 20
