The View From Above
| published March 3, 2015 |
By Thursday Review staff
Astronauts Terry Virts and Barry “Butch” Wilmore went outside the safe confines of the International Space Station on Sunday and Monday of this week for their most recent in a series of space walks—their third in about a week. Wilmore and Virts are in the process of installing roughly 400 feet of cable, multiple antennae, and other exterior hardware to facilitate the use of the C2V2 system—a communications platform also known by the more cumbersome name, Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles. The new system will be used to make communications and data transfer easier and more effective for future spacecraft, including new spaceships now in early stages of testing by Boeing and SpaceX.
Of particular note among all the high technology and space age hardware in this NASA photo: the old school spiral notebook tethered with white Velcro to the astronaut’s arm.
Related Thursday Review articles:
U.S. Space Travel Without Russia; R. Alan Clanton; Thursday Review; May 15, 2014.