Spacewalking Astronauts Finish Extensive, Tricky Cable Job

An anonymous reader writes news about a three-day cable job completed outside the International Space Station. "Spacewalking astronauts successfully completed a three-day cable job outside the International Space Station on Sunday, routing several-hundred feet of power and data lines for new crew capsules commissioned by NASA. It was the third spacewalk in just over a week for Americans Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore, and the quickest succession of spacewalks since NASA's former shuttle days. The advance work was needed for the manned spacecraft under development by Boeing and SpaceX. A pair of docking ports will fly up later this year, followed by the capsules themselves, with astronauts aboard, in 2017."

Was one of them named ...

[CaptainDork]

... Larry?

Re:

[PPH]

Git 'er done!

Awesome!

[EvilSS]

Now let them rest a bit then send them to Arizona [slashdot.org]

Re:

[briancox2]

Thank you for correcting our interest in space.

I'm sure all of humanity will never again wonder if they can travel through it.

Re:

[hey!]

Yeah, cause Mars Exploration Rover, GRAIL, Dawn, New Frontiers, Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Spitzer and Kepler telescopes, all those things are boring science. Only nerds find things like discovering Earthlike exoplanets or determining the origin of the Moon thrilling. They should get their own news site so the rest of us don't have listen to stuff that only matters to them.

Re:

[hey!]

It doesn't. The parent said our space program sucked. I was pointing out that for a program that sucks it does some pretty awesome stuff.

Re:

[tsotha]

Of course it doesn't suck. You need air for suction.

Why new cabling?

[Ken_g6]

Considering (unmanned) SpaceX Dragon capsules already regularly dock with the space station, why do they need new cabling for what is essentially the same operation?

Re:Why new cabling?

[Anonymous Coward]

The cargo Dragons do not dock independently. They basically fly close to the station and are then grappled by the space station robotic arm, which then maneuvers the docking port into alignment.

The new Dragons (manned and unmanned) need a special docking system for alignment and approach to docking.

P.S. Where is the login screen for Slashdot? Please don't tell me I need a Google+ account to log in.

Re: Why new cabling?

[Zeussy]

Also the crew capsules will be staying docked for months at a time. The Dragon v2 is not going to have big extending solar arrays like the current dragon, instead it will have some solar panels wrapped around the trunk. While it is docked and can't keep its attitude aligned to keep these panels in the sun it will need power from somewhere.

Be careful!

[briancox2]

There are satellites exploding up there!

Re:

[BenJaminus]

Wish I hadn't re-watched Gravity last night now!

Helmet water

[tsotha]

Once safely back inside, Virts reported a bit of water in his helmet again for the second time in as many spacewalks. He stressed it was “not a big deal” and said there was no need to hurry out of his suit.

What's with the water? I thought they had this problem fixed.

Competition

[Anonymous Coward]

AT&T and Comcast immediately filed suit claiming unfair competition from a government agency, stating they were planning on installing their own fiber network "any day now".