Posted 7/22/2007 02:46:00 PM by Douglas

Apparently there's not a littering law in low earth orbit.

The station's three-man Expedition 15 crew will toss more than 1,600 pounds (731 kilograms) of unneeded equipment toward Earth, perform some repairs and other clean up work during a Monday spacewalk to help make way for future expansion of the orbital laboratory.

"We know the crew's ready," said Daryl Schuck, NASA's lead extravehicular activity (EVA) officer for Expedition 15, during a recent press conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "We've got confidence in our approach to this and confidence in our crew."

Clayton Anderson, a NASA astronaut and ISS flight engineer, will lead the scrap-tossing spacewalk with the help of cosmonaut Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin. Flight engineer Oleg Kotov will provide support from inside the station by controlling the robotic arm, Canadarm2, to shuttle the astronauts around during their planned 6.5-hour EVA.

I thought NASA's new policy about limiting the amount of space junk they have to dodge with every launch. I guess not.