MISSION SPEACIALISTS GO FOR A SPACEWALK








MISSION CONTROL CENTRE (MOSCOW REGION), March 13, 2001. /From a RIA Novosti correspondent/. At 8.30 a.m. Moscow time, mission specialist Andrew Thomas and his fellow Paul Richards opened hatches of the Discovery entrance compartment and went for a space walk on the surface of the International Space Station. The walk is expected to long approximately four hours.


	The  mission specialists will check the recently attached module Leonardo and do some work connected with the construction and functioning of station units. Among other issue Thomas and Richards are in plan to locate a place on the station support for fixing radio and tv antennas which will allow the ISS to continuously communicate with mission control centers on the Earth. At present the station enters the so-called dead zones on its orbit where communication is cut off.


	The space shuttle Discovery is proposed to finish its mission on March 18 and land in the morning of March 20.