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Spacewalk readies ISS for Boeing, SpaceX crews

James Dean & Associated Press

UPDATE FROM AP, FRIDAY AUG. 19

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronauts ventured out on a spacewalk Friday and installed a new door for visitors at the International Space Station.

The two Americans, Jeffrey Williams and Kate Rubins, hooked up the docking port in just a few hours. SpaceX delivered this new gateway last month, packed in the trunk of a Dragon cargo capsule.

Americans haven’t rocketed into orbit from their home turf since NASA’s last shuttle flight in 2011. SpaceX and Boeing expect to resume human launches from Cape Canaveral in another year or two.

Friday’s success paved the way for these future spaceships.

SpaceX is shooting for a launch of its supped-up Dragon with two astronauts as early as a year from now. Boeing is aiming for a two-person test flight of its Starliner capsule in early 2018. Until then, Russia will keep providing all the rides — at a hefty price for U.S. taxpayers.

NASA divested itself of cargo deliveries a few years back, hiring private U.S. companies to carry out shipments. Commercial crew launches will be an even bigger step. This commercial handoff is freeing up NASA to focus on true outer-space exploration; the space agency is working to get astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.

Delta IV launch to help detect threats to satellites

This is actually NASA’s second newfangled docking ring. The first was destroyed in a SpaceX launch accident last summer. NASA ultimately wants two of these 3 1/2-foot-by-5-foot ports at the 250-mile-high lab. Another one — cobbled together from spare parts — should fly up in about a year.

The space station is currently home to two Americans, one Japanese and three Russians. Up there for five months, Williams and two of the Russians will return to Earth in a couple weeks. First, though, Williams will conduct one more spacewalk with Rubins on Sept. 1 to retract a radiator.

SpaceX’s crew Dragon — an enhanced version of its cargo ship — will fly from a former shuttle launch pad at Kennedy Space Center and, at mission’s end, splash down off the Florida coast. Boeing’s Starliner, meanwhile, will launch aboard the United Launch Alliance’s trusty Atlas V rocket and parachute down somewhere in the American Southwest, possibly New Mexico. These test flights — intended to go all the way to the space station and dock — will last about two weeks. NASA will provide most if not all of the initial test pilots.

ORIGINAL STORY

NASA spacewalkers on Friday hope to ready the International Space Station to receive astronauts in commercial spaceships expected to launch from Florida within the next 18 months.

Expedition 48 commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Kate Rubins will attempt to install a ring to a docking port slated for Boeing and SpaceX capsules now being developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Expedition 48 crew members Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams of NASA outfit spacesuits inside of the Quest airlock aboard the International Space Station. Rubins and Williams plan to conduct a spacewalk on Friday, Aug. 19, to install a new docking port that will enable the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft.

Four NASA astronauts assigned to train for the first test flights of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will be relieved to see the ring, formally called International Docking Adapter, in place.

“Without the docking adapter, we’re not going to get any of these vehicles on board station,” said Bob Behnken, one of four potential NASA test pilots, during a recent visit to Kennedy Space Center. “So that will be a really nice milestone to have behind us.”

SpaceX is targeting a test flight a year from now, and Boeing in February 2018.

The $26 million docking ring built by Boeing arrived at the station in the trunk of an unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo ship launched July 18 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The station’s 58-foot robotic arm, controlled by engineers on the ground, removed the roughly 1,000-pound ring from the trunk Wednesday night and positioned it a few feet from the Harmony module.

The ring will be moved closer Friday morning, and Williams and Rubins will finish the job of attaching it to a port last used by the shuttle Atlantis five years ago.

“That opens the door to commercial crew vehicles,” Williams told NASA TV. “It is a significant door opening in the history of human space exploration.”

Williams, 58, and Rubins, 37, plan to begin a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk around 8 a.m. Friday, exiting the Quest airlock.

NASA TV will provide live coverage of the “extra-vehicular activity,” or EVA, as NASA refers to spacewalks.

SpaceX booster back in Port Canaveral

Williams, a retired Army colonel who soon will set the U.S. record for most days in space, will be performing his fourth spacewalk. He’ll wear a suit with red stripes.

It’s the first spacewalk for Rubins, a biologist specializing in infectious diseases now on her first spaceflight. She’ll wear an all-white suit.

A docking ring was supposed to reach the station last summer. But it was destroyed when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket suffered its only failure minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral.

Another adapter is expected to launch in 2018. Its installation would allow Boeing and SpaceX capsules to dock at the ISS at the same time.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.