Russian ISS crew to make spacewalk to integrate Rassvet module.

MOSCOW, July 27 (Itar-Tass) - Two cosmonauts of the International
Space Station (ISS) crew on Tuesday will perform a spacewalk in order to integrate in the station's Russian segment the small laboratory module Rassvet (MIM-1) that was placed in orbit in the middle of May.

Spokesman for the Mission Control Centre (MCC) outside Moscow Valery
Lyndin told Itar-Tass that "flight engineers of the ISS Expedition 24 crew
Mikhail Korniyenko and Fyodor Yurchikhin are to open hatches of the Pirs
transfer module and begin extravehicular activity (EVA) at 07:45, Moscow
time."
The cosmonauts will be working outside the ISS in the Orlan-MK
computerised spacesuits with an LCD that "prompt" the cosmonaut which
systems and in what order he should control before the EVA and what he
should do in a contingency. Cosmonauts of the ISS Expedition 20 crew were
the first to test these fifth-generation spacesuits in orbit last June.
Commander of the crew Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt
then performed two spacewalks in the new Orlan spacesuits with an interval
of just 5 days, and they tested them it two regimes over the two
"sessions" of work.
It will be the first spacewalk for Korniyenko. His partner Yurchikhin
has already made in the previous flight 3 spacewalks with the total
duration of about 19 hours, however, he will also for the first time work
in the new spacesuit.
The cosmonauts remaining on the ISS - Commander Alexander Skvortsov
and NASA astronauts Tracey Caldwell Dyson, Shannon Walker and Douglas
Wheelock will safeguard their colleagues from the station.
The main task of the EVA is to lay and connect all the cable needed
for the Rassvet module integration in the ISS Russian segment, as well as
to replace a TV camera in the accessory bay of the Zvezda service module.
The planned duration of the EVA is 5 hours and 55 minutes, Lyndin
specified.
According to NASA report, the members of the International Space
Station's Expedition 24 crew shifted their sleep schedule Monday in
preparation for their mission's first spacewalk, waking up at about 2:40
p.m. EDT. Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin, a veteran of three
spacewalks in 2007 during Expedition 15, and Mikhail Korniyenko, a
spacewalk rookie, will perform the six-hour spacewalk. The pair will exit
the Pirs docking compartment and work outside the Zarya and Zvezda
modules. The Pirs Docking Compartment hatch is slated to open at 11:45
p.m. to begin the excursion.
The pair will outfit the Rassvet module's Kurs automated rendezvous
system, install cables and remove and replace a video camera. Kurs is a
Russian radio telemetry system that allows automated dockings of unmanned
spacecraft such as the Progress resupply vehicle. The new video camera
will document the rendezvous and docking of future Automated Transfer
Vehicles to the aft end of the Zvezda service module.
The next spacewalk will take place Aug. 5 with Flight Engineers Tracy
Caldwell Dyson and Doug Wheelock. The astronauts will exit the Quest
airlock and install a Portable Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) on the Zarya
module extending the reach of Canadarm2, the station's robotic arm, and
increasing a spacewalker's capabilities. They also will jettison old
multi-layer insulation removed for the PDGF install and mate power
connectors to Zarya.
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.12th round of Transcaucasia stability to be held in Geneva.

GENEVA, July 27 (Itar-Tass) - The 12th round of discussions on
ensuring security and stability in the Trans-Caucasian region will be held
here on Tuesday. Taking part in the consultations held under the auspices
of the UN, EU and OSCE are delegations of Abkhazia, Georgia, Russia, the
United States and South Ossetia. The discussion will be traditionally held
in the format of two working groups - on security issues and on
humanitarian issues.
The current round was under the threat of disruption after Abkhazian
President Sergei Bagapsh said that Sukhum suspends its participation in
the 12th round of the discussions so that the mediators could have a
possibility to prepare concrete, thought-out proposals. His position was
partly conditioned by the results of the previous, 11th round that was
held in early June. Then the delegations of South Ossetia and Abkhazia
left the hall because their opinion was not taken into account.
The delegation of Abkhazia after all decided not to disrupt the
negotiations, however, scaled down the participation level - instead of
Abkhazian president's adviser on international issues Vyacheslav Chirikba
it sent to Geneva former Abkahzian Deputy Defence Minister Gari Kupalba.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin will also not take part in
the 12th round. This time the Russian delegation will be led by Deputy
Director of the CIS Department of the RF Foreign Ministry Alexei
Dvinyatin. The Russian side decided not to hold the traditional press
conference on the results of the consultations. Head of the US delegation
- Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip
Gordon has not arrived in Geneva as well.
Dvinyatin told Itar-Tass that the "summer holiday period has
inevitably resulted in the objective decrease in the number of the Russian
delegation members, but the main experts are present." He also stressed
that the "absence of the delegation head is temporary" and by this Russia
does not intend to send "any political signals."
Dvinyatin also said that the Russian side will place the main emphasis
during the consultations on the need to continue the working out of the
document "on the non-use of force by Georgia against Abkhazia and South
Ossetia." The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier informed that the
consultations participants also "intend to discuss the current situation
in the security sphere on the Abkhazian and South Ossetian borders with
Georgia, including review of the activity of the joint mechanisms for the
prevention of and reaction to incidents in the border zones."
The discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia are held
since October 2008 based on the agreements between the Russian and French
presidents reached after the tragic events of August 2008 in South Ossetia.
Russia says it acted to defend Russian citizens in South Ossetia, and
its own peacekeepers stationed there. The Russian peacekeepers in South
Ossetia suffered casualties during the initial Georgian artillery barrage
on Tskhinval and were besieged by Georgian troops for two days until a
Russian unit broke through to their camp and started evacuating the
wounded at 5 a.m. on 9 August. According to a senior Russian official, the
first Russian combat unit was ordered to move through the Roki Tunnel at
around dawn of 8 August well after the Georgian attack had begun.
Defending Russia's decision to launch attacks on uncontested Georgia,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia had no choice but
to target the military infrastructure being used to sustain the Georgian
offensive. Initially, Russia went as far as accusing Georgia of committing
genocide against Ossetians, noting that Georgia codenamed their attack
"Operation Clear Field." Both was disputed by the independent EU
commission, which found no evidence for the alleged genocide and ruled the
extension of operations into uncontested Georgia illegal. Russia codenamed
its operation "Operation Forcing Georgia to peace."
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