Latest Extra-vehicular activity Stories

HOUSTON — Two astronauts will step outside the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday to pay a service call on the orbiting lab's cooling system. Discovery shuttle astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan are slated to begin their spacewalk at about 10:32 a.m. EDT (1432 GMT), marking the third excursion of their mission to the space station, to replace an empty nitrogen tank. "This is basically a scheduled maintenance," said Annette Hasbrook, lead space station flight...

HOUSTON — The International Space Station's (ISS) giant Japanese laboratory got a second room Friday after astronauts attached its attic-like storage room. Wielding the space station's robotic arm, astronauts plucked the small storage room from a temporary berth and stuck it atop its permanent home on the roof of Japan's new tour bus-sized Kibo laboratory. "Good job," said Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide after his crewmate, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, eased the...

On Thursday, two spacewalking astronauts serviced the exterior of Japan's brand new orbital lab while crewmates aboard the International Space Station filled its inside with hardware.On the second spacewalk of a busy two-week mission to the station by U.S. shuttle Discovery, astronauts Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan prepared the research laboratory's robotic arm for deployment, installing cameras needed to judge clearances.Initial tests showed the cameras were not working, according to...

This story was updated at 8:23 p.m. EDT. HOUSTON — Astronauts christened the International Space Station's (ISS) giant Japanese room with warm words and smiles Wednesday, officially opening the tour bus-sized Kibo science module aboard the orbiting laboratory. Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide opened the massive $1 billion Kibo laboratory at 5:05 p.m. EDT (2105 GMT) with a short speech before he and nine crewmates floated into its roomy interior a few minutes later....

Armstrong and Buzz are in space again, though they aren't the Apollo astronauts who made history walking on the Moon. Rather, cyclist Lance Armstrong and 'space ranger' Buzz Lightyear are sharing space aboard shuttle Discovery, now docked to the International Space Station. And they are not alone; joining them for the 14-day mission are retired Houston Astros' player Craig Biggio and New York Giants' quarterback Eli Manning. Of course, none of the individuals (and fictional...

Astronauts aboard the international space station floated into their newest room Wednesday "” a $1 billion Japanese science compartment "” and rejoiced over the repair of their broken Russian toilet.Kibo, the largest of the station's habitable modules, was transferred from the shuttle Discovery to the orbital outpost a day earlier. On Wednesday, the 10 American, Russian and Japanese fliers aboard the two docked spacecraft connected electrical lines and computer cables to the 37-foot-long...

This story was updated at 9:10 p.m. EDT. HOUSTON -- Two spacewalking astronauts help deliver a major new addition, the giant Japanese Kibo laboratory, to the International Space Station (ISS) Tuesday in the first of three excursions planned for their mission. Spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan also tested methods of cleaning the orbital lab's sticky solar wing joint and retrieved their shuttle's inspection boom during their nearly seven-hour venture outside the station....

Japan's module to enable biology, medical studiesDiscovery's astronauts, working inside and outside the international space station, pulled Japan's $1 billion science module from the shuttle's cargo bay with a robot arm Tuesday and gave the bus-sized laboratory a new home on the facility.The 37-foot-long, 32,000-pound module, called Kibo "” designed to house physics, biology and medical experiments "” was attached to the facility just down the hall from older and smaller American and...

The technical marvel that is the space shuttle system does not stop with the spacecraft. The spacesuits the astronauts wear during launch and landing are examples of high-tech clothing designed to hold communications equipment, oxygen tanks, parachutes and enough water for a day. All while keeping the wearer cool. You won't see a bulky pressure suit weighing 91 pounds and painted orange on the fashion runways of Paris, but they are an essential element of any astronaut's wardrobe. No one goes...

Japan has built a space station lab that is being called the Lexus of space stations for its size and sophistication.The station will launch Saturday with the space shuttle Discovery. It is called Kibo (which means "hope" in Japanese) and costs a whopping $1 billion. Kibo will be the biggest and, by far, the most elaborate room at the international space station - a 37-foot-long scientific workshop as large as a school bus, with its own hatch to the outside for experiments and a pair of robot...