Spacewalking Astronauts Turn Cable Guys In 1st Of 3 Jobs

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

CAPE CANAVERAL (CBSMiami/AP) — Two space station astronauts stepped out of the International Space Station to do some tricky cable work.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts floated out of their orbiting home — the International Space Station — on Saturday. It's the first of three spacewalks planned over the next week to rewire the outpost for new crew capsules.

The first docking port for the Boeing and SpaceX ferry ships will arrive in June. Those commercial capsules are to start transporting U.S. astronauts in 2017.

Wilmore and Virts have 764 feet of cable to run over the coming week. NASA considers this the most complicated cable-routing job in the 16-year history of the space station.

The second spacewalk will be Wednesday and the third next weekend. Spacesuit concerns stalled everything by a day.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Read more
f

We and our partners use cookies to understand how you use our site, improve your experience and serve you personalized content and advertising. Read about how we use cookies in our cookie policy and how you can control them by clicking Manage Settings. By continuing to use this site, you accept these cookies.