The Expedition 17 crew aboard the International Space Station completed preparations Wednesday for Thursday's spacewalk by Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko.
The two spacewalkers will inspect their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft, remove one of the 10 pyrotechnic separation bolts at the interface of two sections of the spacecraft and, if time permits, install a docking target on the Zvezda module for the future arrival of a new Russian module.
The spacewalk will begin at about 2:20 p.m. EDT.
The crew conducted a final review of the spacewalk timeline with Russian specialists at the Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow, and deactivated some systems in preparation for putting the station into "caretaker" status during the excursion.
The crew members also closed several hatches on the orbital outpost. More hatches are scheduled for closure Thursday morning.
In addition to helping his crewmates prepare for Thursday's work outside the station, Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff participated in an amateur radio session with the National Agriculture Museum in Ottawa.
All three crew members performed their regular exercise routines, which help minimize the effects of long-duration exposure to the microgravity environment of space.
