Sep 12 2006
From The Space Library
Atlantis astronauts Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper and Joseph R. Tanner performed the first of three planned spacewalks to install the P3/P4 truss. During the 6.5-hour spacewalk, the pair connected power cables to the truss, released launch restraints on the structure’s components, and prepared those components for later operation. Another notable achievement of the spacewalk was the crew’s use of a new procedure to acclimatize astronauts to the environment of outer space. Under the new procedure, called a “camp out,” the astronauts followed a protocol requiring that they spend the night before the spacewalk shut inside the ISS’s Quest airlock, under lowered air pressure. Sleeping in reduced air pressure speeds the removal of nitrogen from the astronauts’ bodies, thereby helping them avoid decompression sickness—also known as the bends—during spacewalks.
NASA, “STS-115.”
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