Two astronauts tackled an inventory of leftover upkeep duties exterior of the International Space Station Saturday (March 13), finishing work that was initially scheduled to be executed on earlier spacewalks.
Expedition 64 crewmates Victor “Ike” Glover and Mike “Hopper” Hopkins, each with NASA, ventured out of the house station’s Quest airlock on Sunday (March 13) for the 6 hour and 47 minute extravehicular exercise (EVA). The spacewalk, which started at eight:14 a.m. EST (1314 GMT), marked their third outing collectively since arriving on the station in November on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Resilience.”
The 2 astronauts’ first process, postponed from a spacewalk earlier this month, was to vent the remaining ammonia from two jumper cables that have been used to feed coolant into the station’s thermal management system. Working on the far left finish of the orbiting complicated’s spine truss, Glover and Hopkins launched the ammonia from the pair of hoses after which stowed one jumper in place and relocated the opposite to the aspect of the airlock ought to they’re wanted to assist discover coolant leaks sooner or later.
“I see venting,” mentioned Hopkins after releasing the ammonia from the primary jumper. “Oh yeah, have a look at that go!”
“That’s greater than I assumed,” he mentioned a number of moments later as coolant continued to spray into house.
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As a result of ammonia is poisonous, the 2 spacewalkers paused to examine one another’s spacesuits to ensure no ammonia ice crystals have been connected.
“I can see the highest of your helmet, your lights, the PLSS [portable life support system], your shoulders, your arms — I see nothing that’s caught,” reported Glover about Hopkins’ spacesuit. “It seems to be clear.”
After stowing the jumpers and cleansing up the instruments they used to vent the ammonia, Glover and Hopkins break up methods to proceed separate duties exterior the house station.
Glover, who was designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) and wore a spacesuit with purple stripes for identification, headed off to the Unity node to switch a failed wi-fi digital camera transceiver with a brand new one.
In the meantime, Hopkins, carrying a spacesuit with no stripes as EV2, transitioned over to the ESA (European Area Company) Columbus laboratory, the place he labored to run electrical cables to the module’s Bartolomeo exterior experiment platform. Glover and Hopkins had put in the identical rigging throughout a Jan. 27 spacewalk, however bumped into points connecting a few of the cables, stopping the platform from changing into absolutely operational.
“Mated!” exclaimed Hopkins after efficiently connecting the primary of the troublesome connectors. “And the group goes wild!”
“Good!” replied Glover.
“Good job! Wow! Wonderful. Excellent news,” radioed ESA astronaut Andreas (Andy) Mogensen, who was guiding Hopkins and Glover via their work from Mission Management in Houston.
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As Hopkins continued engaged on the second and third of 4 Bartolomeo cables, Glover accomplished the wi-fi transceiver substitute and moved on to putting in a “stiffener” on the Quest airlock’s thermal cowl to offer added structural integrity and to forestall the fabric hatch from being jostled open when not in use.
“Hopper, there’s one thing in my proper eye,” Glover radioed to Hopkins. “I can see, however it’s irritating attempting to maintain it open.”
Glover continued engaged on the hatch stiffener, however described the difficulty along with his eye in additional element to Mission Management.
“It is irritated if I preserve it open. If I shut it, I’m effective, barely irritated and it is watery. So tears, it’s creating tears,” mentioned Glover, including that blinking appeared to assist.
A couple of minutes later, Glover mentioned his proper eye was again to regular.
Hopkins, in the meantime, had no pleasure with latching down the fourth connector on the Bartolomeo platform. Regardless of his finest efforts, together with utilizing a tether as a makeshift deal with to drag down on its locking mechanism, Hopkins couldn’t get the cable to seat and Mission Management suggested he stand down.
As a substitute, Hopkins moved on to reconfigure a ham radio antenna on the Columbus module. Astronauts use ham radio to attach with fanatics and college students across the globe as each an academic and public outreach instrument.
As their remaining process for the spacewalk, Glover and Hopkins got here collectively to start routing two ethernet cables for high-definition cameras on the port truss.
The spacewalk got here to an finish at three:01 p.m. EST (2001 GMT) with the repressurization of the Quest airlock.
Glover has now spent a complete of 26 hours and seven minutes on 4 spacewalks. Hopkins has now logged 32 hours and 1 minute on his 5 EVAs. This was the 237th spacewalk in help of the meeting and upkeep of the Worldwide Area Station, for a complete time of 62 days, three hours, and 54 minutes.
Robert Pearlman is a Area.com contributing author and the editor of collectSPACE.com, a Area.com companion website and the main house historical past information publication. Observe collectSPACE on Fb and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Observe us @Spacedotcom and Fb . Unique article on Area.com.
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