Station Crew Wrapping Up Preps for Monday's Spacewalk - The Expedition 38 astronauts wrapped up the workweek Friday aboard the International Space Station with biomedical research and robotics, while their Russian colleagues entered the homestretch of preparations for a spacewalk they will conduct Monday.
Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy donned their Russian Orlan spacesuits for a "dry run" dress rehearsal to test the suits in advance of Monday's spacewalk to reinstall a pair of cameras as part of a commercial endeavor between a Canadian firm and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The cameras will be used to downlink Earth imagery to Internet-based subscribers. The two cosmonauts also plan to retrieve an experiment package housed on the Zvezda service module's hull.
Monday's excursion will be the 178th spacewalk in support of station assembly and maintenance, the sixth for Kotov and the third for Ryazanskiy.
The Caribbean country of Cuba appears at the top of this high oblique image, photographed by one of the Expedition 38 crew members aboard the International Space Station.
Image Credit: NASA