'Expedition Three' makes spacewalk

Russia's Vladimir Dezhurov and the United States' Frank Culbertson worked together outside the orbiting international space station in a Monday spacewalk -- the last scheduled for their "Expedition Three" mission.

By Amanda Barnett and
Porter Anderson
CNN

(CNN) -- The current international space station crew made a third and final scheduled spacewalk on Monday.

Two of the three crew members left the spacecraft as it flew in Earth orbit. They worked to hook up cables and check out a cargo crane on the station's exterior.

Mission commander Frank Culbertson of the United States and pilot Vladimir Dezhurov of Russia exited the new Russian-built Pirs docking compartment -- running some 45 minutes late on their schedule, initially -- for a spacewalk expected to last about six hours. They began the activity on Monday at around 4:45 p.m. EST.

The pair planned to complete connections for seven high-frequency cables on Pirs' automated docking system.

RESOURCES MESSAGE BOARD: Space Exploration

The two "Expedition Three" colleagues also were to examine a solar array panel on the Zvezda Service Module. The panel failed to deploy properly following its launch in July 2000. Culbertson and Dezhurov on Monday found that all the panel's hardware seemed to be in place.

This was the first spacewalk for Culbertson, a veteran space shuttle pilot; the eighth for Dezhurov.

Solar panels and the station's telescoping cargo crane were tested and checked during Monday's walk.

The mission's Russian flight engineer, Mikhail Tyurin, who took part in the two earlier spacewalks, stood by on Monday to operate the station's Canadian-built robot arm from inside the station. Cameras on the arm intermittently allowed ground controllers in the United States and Russia to monitor the spacewalk as light became available.

Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin are winding down their stay on Alpha. They've been on the station for 93 days and are scheduled to return to Earth in December. The three are to spend their remaining time on Alpha conducting science experiments and making preparations for their replacements: Russian commander Yuri Onufrienko and U.S. astronauts Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch.

The space station is orbiting Earth at an average altitude of 247 statute miles (395 km).