U.S. Space Station Crew Members Begin Spacewalk Trilogy To Prepare For Commercial Crew Vehicles.

Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA conducted a spacewalk Feb. 21 to begin rigging cables and other equipment as the precursor to the installation of new docking ports to which U.S. commercial crew vehicles will link up to in the years ahead. The docking ports, called International Docking Adapters, will be delivered to the station later this year on SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicles for attachment to Pressurized Mating Adapters 2 and 3. The spacewalk was the 185th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the second in Wilmore’s career and the first for Virts. The two astronauts will venture outside the Quest airlock again on Feb. 25 and March 1 to continue the routing of cables for the new docking ports and to install communications gear for the new commercial crew vehicles.