NASA is preparing to undertake the largest upgrade to the International Space Station (ISS) in its history 17-year history.
According to Discovery News, it is also the first time the ISS is getting an updated look at the first phase is a spacewalk Friday. The space agency expects the work to be done by the end of the year.
NASA wants to "reconfigure" the ISS to open up a second dock for commercial capsules flown up in resupply missions, Discovery News reported. NASA is currently paying SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to perform such duties.
Expedition 42, the first of three spacewalks, is set for Friday at 7:10 a.m. EST with ISS commander Barry Wilmore and flight engineer Terry Virts carrying it out, NASA said in a press release. The pair is scheduled to make the second spacewalk Tuesday and the third on Sunday, March 1.
Though the ISS was originally launched in 1998, it was not a finished product until 2011. NASA has been paying the Russian Space Agency to taxi astronauts to the ISS, but the U.S. would like to end its reliance in that regard, as it costs the U.S. government about $70 million per seat.
NASA has awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to develop space ferries for its astronauts.
Kenneth Todd, the ISS' operations manager, told Discovery News seven spacewalks are planned for the rest of the year docking targets, communications systems and other pieces of equipment.
NASA's objective is to end its reliance on Russia by 2017 and redirect the money it spends to send astronauts to the ISS to the U.S. government.
"This is quite a bit of work," Mike Suffredini, ISS program manager, told Discovery News. "Our plan has always been to have a docking capability in place and operational by the end of 2015 and we're on track to do that."
