Posted: Sat, Jun 6, 2009, 10:13 AM ET (1413 GMT)
Two members of the International Space Station's crew performed a nearly five-hour spacewalk Friday to prepare the station for the installation of another Russian module. Station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mike Barratt started the spacewalk at 3:52 am EDT (0752 GMT), behind schedule due to high carbon dioxide readers in the Russian space suits. During the 4-hour, 54-minute minute spacewalk the two installed docking antennas, a docking target, and electrical connectors on the zenith port of the Zvezda service module. Those systems will be used for the docking of a new Russian module, the Mini-Research Module-2 (MRM2), scheduled for launch late this year. MRM2 is similar to the Pirs module already attached to the station and will provide an additional docking port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  CBS News/Spaceflight Now article
•  AP article
•  RIA Novosti article
•  NASA release