ISS ventures out

Expedition 32, that’s the current group up on the ISS (International Space Station), gets to venture out for a walk.

To review - Currently there are 6 Astronauts onboard the ISS – three Russian Cosmonauts, two NASA Astronauts and one Japanese Astronaut (apparently they also use the term Astronaut?!) These six each have a specific set of missions as has every Expedition from #1-32. This involves testing the Canadian space robot Dextre to the growth of to hydroponic foods to medical devices. The International Space Station provides a unique platform for scientific research that cannot be performed on Earth. The zero gravity, exposure to space etc; space stations offer a long term environment where studies can be performed potentially for decades, combined with ready access by human researchers over periods that exceed the capabilities of manned spacecraft.

Now the cool part, atleast if I were an astronaut up there I would see it as the cool part and I am sure that is just how the cosmonauts who will be installing debris shields in their 6 and a half hour spacewalk on August 20 or Williams and Hoshide on their NASA endorsed spacewalk on Aug 30th see it. Much of these objectives are recent additions but things malfunction, such as to the camera on the robotic arm, and the astronauts feel ready and confident that they can handle all the needs.

By the way, these will be televised if you are interested on NASA TV/NASA.com at 10:40am for the Cosmonauts and 8:40 am for the Astronauts