Digital News Report- NASA has announced that they plan on holding a media briefing on Dec. 18 to discuss an upcoming International Space Station spacewalk that will take place on Dec. 22. NASA Television will cover the spacewalk live. Expedition 18 will feature Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov. The briefing from NASA’s Johnson Space Center will air live on NASA TV Dec. 18 at 1 p.m. CST.
During the spacewalk, Fincke and Lonchakov will deploy and retrieve several Russian experiments on the station’s exterior. They also will install a device to measure electromagnetic forces imparted on station hardware as the complex moves through low Earth orbit. Russian specialists believe electromagnetic interference may have contributed to past problems on the Soyuz spacecraft’s pyrotechnic bolts, which allow sections of the vehicle to separate properly during its return to Earth.
NASA TV coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 22. The spacewalk will start at approximately 6:15 p.m. and last six hours. It will be the fifth spacewalk of Fincke’s career and the first for Lonchakov. Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandy Magnus will monitor the spacewalk from inside the station.