Space junkies take note: On Thursday, NASA will broadcast work being done on the International Space Station, the first time such a task has been done without a shuttle standing by.
Anyone who has played with Legos will understand the basic idea. Later this year, and next year, laboratory modules from Europe and Japan will be delivered to the facility. But to make room for both – or to be more precise, to provide docking facilities – a new connecting module has to be added.
This week's work will make room for that connecting module, slated to be delivered by a shuttle mission in October. Astronauts Clayton Anderson and Oleg Kotov will use a robotic arm to detach the existing docking adapter from its current location, and move it to another.
The broadcast will kick off at 4:40 pm Central Time, and is expected to run about five hours, NASA said. Information on tuning into the stream online is on NASA's site, here.
(Photo: NASA)
