December 2001
From The Space Library
Cosmonauts Vladimir N. Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin performed a spacewalk outside of the ISS to clear an obstruction that had prevented the pilotless Progress Russian supply ship from docking securely to the space station. The crew believed that the obstruction was a rubber seal from a supply ship that had left the ISS on 22 November. NASA had delayed the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour for five days because of concern that Endeavour’s arrival at the space station could cause the insecurely docked supply ship to wobble, possibly damaging the ISS. However, Dezhurov and Tyurin were able to remove the obstruction during their 3-hour spacewalk, thereby clearing the way for Endeavour to launch on 5 December. (Warren E. Leary, “Endeavour Is Set for Launching After Docking Problem Is Solved,” New York Times, 4 December 2001; Los Angeles Times, “With Space Debris Cleared, Shuttle Launch Set,” 4 December 2001.)
- November
- December
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
