Two elements of the Russian aspect of the Worldwide House Station are a step nearer to being robotically relocated after two cosmonauts accomplished a spacewalk to organize the items for his or her transfer.
Expedition 68 commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin, each of the Russian federal space company Roscosmos, carried out a six hour, 25 minute EVA (extravehicular exercise) on Thursday (Nov. 17) to prepared an airlock and radiator for his or her switch from one Russian module to a different. The {hardware} had been launched to the station 12 years in the past aboard a NASA space shuttle and are actually being repositioned to assist a more moderen module.
Prokopyev and Petelin exited the station’s space-facing Poisk module at 9:39 a.m. EST (1439 GMT) to start the primary of 4 deliberate spacewalks in assist of the strikes. The cosmonauts’ work was primarily targeted on releasing the radiator, which is used to dissipate warmth and is about to be moved robotically in the course of the subsequent EVA scheduled for Nov. 25.
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The spacewalkers started their duties by putting in an adapter on what known as a flight-releasable grapple fixture on the airlock at the moment hooked up to Russia’s Rassvet mini-research module on the Earth-facing aspect of the station. They subsequent maneuvered and opened up valves to be able to vent nitrogen within the hydraulic loops which have supported a radiator additionally housed on the outside of Rassvet.
Finishing that work in immediate vogue and with out issues, Prokopyev and Petelin turned their consideration to eradicating six radiator restraints which have been in place for the reason that part was launched with Rassvet aboard on the space shuttle Atlantis‘ STS-132 mission in 2010. The 2 additionally put in a retainer on the Strela growth — an extension utilized by spacewalkers to maneuver between modules — so {that a} foot restraint and different gear might be mounted in assist of the radiator’s relocation course of.
Prokopyev and Petelin’s final main activity of the spacewalk was to put in a “massive object attachment system” on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, the place the airlock will likely be hooked up throughout an EVA that’s scheduled for Dec. 6, two spacewalks from immediately’s outing. Throughout the set up, there was speak of utilizing a hammer to knock the panel into place.
“It seems like we aren’t going to wish the hammer,” mentioned Prokopyev.
“Sure, seems like we’re fortunate and the hammer will not be wanted,” replied Petelin.
“Properly, I used to be all enthusiastic about hammering away in space!” Prokopyev replied.
“Properly, you already know, subsequent week, subsequent EVA, we will likely be eradicating the plug and demating the outdated radiator, so we’re going to take all instruments accessible with us. So you should still get the prospect,” mentioned Petelin.
Expedition 68 flight engineer Anna Kikina, the one girl in Roscosmos’ energetic cosmonaut corps, is scheduled to relocate each the airlock and radiator utilizing the recently-added 36-foot-long (11 meters) European robotic arm from a management panel positioned contained in the space station.
Prokopyev and Petelin reentered the space station at 4:07 p.m. EST (2107 GMT).
Thursday’s EVA was the third for Prokopyev and the primary for Petelin. Prokopyev has now logged 21 hours and 56 minutes on his three spacewalks.
The EVA was the tenth for the yr, the second of a minimum of seven deliberate for the International Space Station‘s present Expedition 68 mission and the 255th since 1998 in assist of meeting and upkeep of the ISS.
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