Spacewalk to ready space station for Boeing, SpaceX crews

Rubins and Williams plan to conduct a spacewalk on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, to install a new docking port that will enable the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. MELBOURNE, Fla. -- NASA spacewalkers on Friday hope to ready the International Space Station to receive astronauts in commercial spaceships expected to launch from Florida within the next 18 months. Expedition 48 commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Kate Rubins will attempt to install a ring to a docking port slated for Boeing and SpaceX capsules now being developed under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Four NASA astronauts assigned to train for the first test flights of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon will be relieved to see the ring, formally called International Docking Adapter, in place. "Without the docking adapter, we're not going to get any of these vehicles on board station," said Bob Behnken, one of four potential NASA test pilots, during a recent visit to Kennedy Space Center.