The Expedition 24 crew members aboard the International Space Station focused on spacewalk preparations and maintenance activities Wednesday.

To prepare for a six-hour spacewalk set to begin at 11:45 p.m. EDT Monday, Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Mikhail Kornienko installed new batteries in the Russian Orlan spacesuits they will wear on their excursion. The spacewalkers will install Kurs automated rendezvous equipment on the exterior of the recently delivered Rassvet module to facilitate future dockings with Russian spacecraft. A dry run of the spacewalk will take place Friday when the cosmonauts will wear the spacesuits, practice their movements and test their mobility.

Meanwhile, Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock, Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Shannon Walker gathered tools and conducted cooling loop maintenance on the U.S. spacesuits for a spacewalk scheduled for Aug 5. Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson will venture outside the station to install an electronics and data cable to prepare for the delivery of the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module during the STS-133 space shuttle mission in November.

Caldwell Dyson also worked in the Destiny laboratory on the Oxygen Generation System, flushing the components that allow liquid to flow through the system so that oxygen can be extracted from recycled water to provide air for the crew to breathe.

Source http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html