Third Spacewalk a Breeze for Space Station Crew

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Third Spacewalk a Breeze for Space Station Crew
Expedition 9 spacewalkers Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke are pictured shortly after beginning their third spacewalk. (Image credit: NASA TV.)

The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) flawlessly completed a spacewalk Tuesday morning, preparing their orbital home for a new cargo ship and retrieving experiments attached to its hull.

ISS Expedition 9 commander Gennady Padalka and NASA ISS Science Officer Michael Fincke are safely back inside the space station after a 4.5-hour spacewalk that found them consistently ahead of schedule and so eager to work that ground controllers repeatedly urged them to take breaks and enjoys the scenery.

"It's a great view," Fincke said during a rest early in the activity as he watched the sun rise during one of the spacecraft's 90-minute orbit of the planet.

The spacewalk was the third extravehicular activity (EVA) for the Expedition 9 crew and began when Padalka and Fincke opened the outer hatch of the station's Pirs Docking Compartment at 2:58 a.m. EDT (0658 GMT) Tuesday morning. By the spacewalk's end at 7:28 a.m. EDT (1128 GMT), the astronauts had completed all of their EVA tasks.

Preparing for 'Jules Verne'

 

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.