MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The spacewalk that the International Space Station (ISS) crew is planning to make on December 8 is likely to be postponed to early February, a spokesman for the Mission Control Center outside Moscow said on Monday.
"The work schedule of Expedition 12 to the ISS is likely to be adjusted. Some of the events scheduled for December, including the crew's spacewalk, are likely to be postponed," the spokesman told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The spacewalk under the Russian flight program may be made in early February, he said.
"The crew will be busy with a series of scientific experiments in December. Moreover, they will have to replace some large-size equipment and load some of the dismantled equipment and waste onto the Progress freighter, which is to undock from the ISS in December," the spokesman noted.
Flight chief of the ISS's Russian segment Vladimir Solovyov earlier told reporters that the December spacewalk of Vladimir Tokarev and William McArthur is likely to be rescheduled to a later date. He explained that changes in the flight program are made in connection with the cancellation of the U.S. space shuttle flight to the ISS, originally scheduled for March 2006. The shuttle was supposed to deliver equipment for experiments and other hardware that Tokarev and McArthur were to install.
"Today it is perfectly clear that this expedition will not work with the shuttle," Solovyov said.
Tokarev and McArthur have been working at the ISS since October 3. Their shift will end in March 2006, when the crew of Expedition 13 arrives at the station. In December, the current crew will receive the Progress cargo spacecraft.
The first ISS module, the Zarya functional and cargo section, was orbited on November 20, 1998. The station became manned in November 2000, when the crew of Expedition 1 arrived aboard.
The station's total weight currently exceeds 178 tonnes, width to 73 m, and length to 44 m. The volume of manned sections is 425 cubic meters and area of solar batteries is 892 square meters. Over 100,000 people from 16 countries provide ground support to the ISS.
Over 50 flights of manned and cargo spacecraft manufactured in Russia and the U.S. have been made to the ISS since November 1998. This figure includes 17 flights of U.S. shuttles, two flights of Proton rockets, 10 flights of Soyuz manned spacecraft, and 20 flights of Progress freighters.