Additional SMDP panels will be installed on Zvezda during a second spacewalk by the cosmonauts, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, on June 6. During that spacewalk they also will install a section of an Ethernet cable on the Zarya module and a Russian experiment called Biorisk on Pirs.

Yurchikhin, the lead spacewalker, EV1, and Kotov, EV2, wore Russian Orlan spacesuits. It was the first spacewalk for both.

After leaving the Pirs airlock at 3:05 p.m. EDT, the spacewalkers moved to the Strela 2, one of the hand-operated cranes at the base of Pirs. They attached an extension to the Strela boom. With Kotov on the end of the extension, Yurchikhin extended the boom to a point over Pressurized Mating Adaptor 3 (PMA-3), on the Unity Node, a distance of about 60 feet.

Yurchikhin, with guidance from Kotov, maneuvered the Strela end effector to a grapple fixture on the SMDP Adaptor, a stowage rack. It is attached to PMA-3 and held three bundles of SMDP panels, a total of 17 of them. The assembly has been dubbed the "Christmas Tree."

Once the Christmas Tree was attached to Strela and released from PMA-3, Yurchikhin moved it and Kotov back to the small diameter of Zvezda. Yurchikhin joined Kotov there, and together they secured it to a grapple fixture on Zvezda.

They then left the SMDP task and moved aft on Zvezda's large diameter. There they rerouted a cable for a Global Positioning System to be used with the European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The ATV is an unpiloted cargo carrier with almost twice the capacity of the Progress cargo craft. It is scheduled to make its first launch later this year.

That done, they moved back to the Christmas Tree on the forward end of Zvezda, where they removed and opened one of the three bundles of debris panels. That bundle, No. 4, held five panels. The aluminum panels vary in size but are about an inch thick. They typically measure about 2 by 3 feet and weigh 15 to 20 pounds.

Yurchikhin and Kotov installed the five panels on Zvezda's conical section, the area between Zvezda's large and small diameters.

Six SMDPs from bundle No. 1 were installed during an Aug. 16, 2002, spacewalk by Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson. Those SMDPs were delivered to the station by Endeavour during STS-111 in June 2002.

The remaining three bundles and their adaptor were delivered by Discovery during STS-116 last December and attached to PMA-3 by spacewalkers Bob Curbeam and Sunita Williams. Williams was intravehicular officer for Wednesday's spacewalk, advising and keeping the spacewalkers on schedule.

After the installation task, the spacewalkers moved back to Pirs and into the airlock. Hatch closure marking the end of the spacewalk was at 8:30 p.m.

earlier related report
Korolev (SPX) May 31 - The Russian cosmonauts, ISS-15 expedition crewmembers Fyodor Yurchikhin (commander, Korolev RSC Energia test-cosmonaut), Oleg Kotov (flight engineer, Gagarin TsPK RGNII test cosmonaut (Cosmonaut Training Center)) conducted the first spacewalk over the station surface planned in the flight program.

The operations were performed under Korolev RSC Energia specialists' control.

As a result of the extravehicular activity (EVA) they mounted additional anti-debris panels (ADP) to protect the body of the Zvezda Service Module of the ISS Russian Segment (RS) from meteoroid debris and routed a high-frequency cable needed to ensure the RS equipment operation.

The crew working in the Russian Orlan M spacesuits egressed into the outer space from the ISS RS Pirs docking compartment-module. The egress hatch of the module was opened on May 30 at 23:05 Moscow time.

The crew successfully fulfilled all EVA tasks and returned to the station at 4:30 Moscow time. A total duration of the activity in the outer space was 5:25 hours.

ISS-15 crew flight engineer-2 NASA astronaut Sunita Williams staying on board ISS monitored the spacewalk timeline execution, the status of station systems.

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