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U.S. station
commander Shane Kimbrough, 49, and French flight engineer Thomas
Pesquet, 39, floated outside the station's airlock as the $100
billion complex soared 250 miles (402 km) above Earth.
Kimbrough, making his fifth spacewalk, first upgraded a computer
relay box on the station's central beam, then worked on a
docking system for new spaceships in development by Boeing and
Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration is making
the retrofits in the hope that private companies will begin
flying astronauts to the station by the end of 2018. This would
break Russia's monopoly on crew transportation, a service that
costs NASA more than $80 million per person.
The first of the space taxis is scheduled for an unmanned debut
test flight later this year.
During Friday's spacewalk, Kimbrough disconnected four cables on
a docking tunnel to be used by the new commercial space taxis.
On Sunday, ground control teams will use the station's robot arm
to move it onto a different module.
The astronauts also lubricated part of the station's robot arm,
replaced cameras on Japan's experiment platform and tackled
other maintenance tasks before heading back inside the station.
A second spacewalk by Pesquet and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson
is planned for Thursday to install new cables to the relocated
docking tunnel.
Once all the work is finished, the U.S. side of the station will
have two docking ports for passenger spaceships and two for
cargo ships. Russia, which jointly operates the station with
NASA, has five docking ports.
Also participating in the station program with research modules
and equipment are Europe, Japan and Canada.
During Friday's spacewalk, Pesquet inspected hoses, attachments
and other components of the station's ammonia cooling system.
Flight controllers are looking for the source of a small leak in
the system.
Pesquet, making his second spacewalk, did not see any leaking
ammonia but engineers will review his video for closer scrutiny,
said NASA mission commentator Gary Jordan.
NASA is expected to schedule a third spacewalk once its next
cargo ship arrives at the station with more items to install.
Engineers are troubleshooting a problem with the cargo ship's
launch vehicle.
(Editing by Letitia Stein and Sandra Maler)
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