WASHINGTON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Two astronauts are venturing outside the International Space Station Tuesday on the first of two July spacewalks to carry out a variety of maintenance and installation tasks.
American Chris Cassidy and Italian Luca Parmitano started their spacewalk at 8:02 a.m. EDT (1202 GMT), which is expected to last six and a half hours, U.S. space agency NASA said on its website.
Cassidy will route power cables to support the addition of the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module scheduled to arrive at the station later this year. He will also remove and replace a space-to-ground transmitter receiver controller, which failed in December 2012.
Parmitano's task list includes retrieving a pair of space exposure materials science experiments, removing a failed camera assembly, and photographing the state-of-the-art particle physics detector known as Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 to provide researchers a visual assessment of its condition after two years in space.
The two will also team up to attach two grapple bars to thermal radiators to make them easier to remove and replace should they fail.
This is Parmitano's first spacewalk, making him the first Italian astronaut to walk in space, and Cassidy's fifth. The two are slated to head outside again next Tuesday.
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