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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Stealthy astronauts added a new parking space at the International Space Station on Wednesday.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan had to deal with several cables to install a docking port delivered by SpaceX last month. SpaceX and Boeing will use it once they start sending astronauts to the lab in orbit by the end of this year or early next year.
This is the second docking port of the station for commercial crew caps. The first was installed three years ago. The new port replaces the one that had been destroyed during a 2015 SpaceX launch accident.
It was the third spacewalk in The Hague and the premiere of Morgan, an army doctor who had settled in the radio station a month ago.
"The documents are great," radioed Morgan Control Center Center as the release into the space began. The Houston astronaut communicating with the space walkers – who is also a doctor – added: "Welcome to the outside".
Since the withdrawal of its space shuttles in 2011, NASA is limited to Russian rockets to allow astronauts to get to the space station. While commercial shipments to the United States have been running smoothly since 2012, crew flights from Cape Canaveral remain on hold.
SpaceX launched its first crewless Dragon capsule on board in March. The capsule was destroyed the following month during a Florida engine test. Despite the setback, SpaceX is still aiming to make its first test flight with astronauts by the end of the year.
Boeing intends to launch its unmanned Starliner capsule this fall, and then conduct a test flight with a crew early next year.
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The Health and Science Department of the Associated Press is receiving support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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