May 30 2007
From The Space Library
ISS Commander Fyodor N. Yurchikhi and ISS Flight Engineer Oleg V. Kotov undertook a 5.5- hour spacewalk to install protective panels designed to shield the space station from dangerous space debris. The IISTF had issued a report in February 2007 finding that the impact from space debris was the top threat to the future of the ISS and to the safety of its inhabitants. Yurchikhin and Kotov installed 5 of 17 panels on a Russian section of the ISS, a section that had been among the first components launched and was not as heavily protected as the later U.S. modules. Each panel measured approximately 2 feet by 3 feet (0.6 meters by 0.9 meters) and 5 inches thick (12.7 centimeters thick) and weighed approximately 20 pounds (9 kilograms). The cosmonauts also successfully rerouted a cable for a navigation antenna that the crew would use later in the year at the scheduled arrival of the first new European cargo vehicle.
Mike Schneider for Associated Press, “Space Station Gets Protective Shielding,” 31 May 2007; Mark Carreau, “Cosmonauts Install Protective Panels on Spacewalk,” Houston Chronicle, 31 May 2007; International Space Station Independent Safety Task Force, “Final Report” (NASA, Washington, DC, February 2007), 17, http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/170368main_IIST_%20Final%20Report.pdf (accessed 29 January 2010).
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