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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – Stealthy astronauts added a new parking space at the International Space Station on Wednesday.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan successfully installed 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.
The two men had to struggle with old rigid cables for power and data to reach the port. They also attached reflectors for navigation.
"Really well done … you have given us a brand new mooring port for our new generation spacecraft," Radio Mission Control announced at the end of the release in the space of six and a half hours .
It is the second station mooring port for commercial crew capsules. The first was joined three years ago. The new port replaced the one that had been destroyed during a SpaceX launch accident in 2015.
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 US companies have been delivering supplies 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 this 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.
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," Mission Control sent a radio message to Morgan at the beginning of the work.
Hague's mother delivered homemade treats to Houston flight controllers in the middle of the spacewalk.
"I heard that she was busy in the kitchen yesterday," said Hague. "I hope everyone appreciates that, I'm jealous."
"Well," Mission Control said, "we're pretty jealous of what you both do, so I'll tell you it's a fair exchange."
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