NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover embarked on a space mission outside the International Space Station on Saturday to upgrade the laboratory’s communications and cooling systems. The walk, which took place about 250 kilometers above the earth, lasted almost seven hours.
Hopkins struggled with bulky electrical connections and managed to connect and secure three of the four power and data cables needed by a European experimental platform during a challenging space step, leaving one cable for additional troubleshooting.
Hopkins and crew member Victor Glover also fed the remaining ammonia refrigerant from two jumpers used to operate the station’s thermal control system and store the hoses in various locations for future use if necessary. One jumper spat out more ammonia ice crystals than expected when it flowed into space, but the astronauts said their costumes were not contaminated with any flakes that could be brought back to the station.
Hopkins and Glover, who were hovering in the Quest airlock, began Saturday’s outing when they switched their spacecraft to battery power at 8:14 a.m. EST, and began the 237th Space Street for station assembly and maintenance since construction in 1998.
The first task on the agenda was to deflate the two ammonia jumpers, which are used for loading coolant into the station’s thermal control system, and for detecting leaks. The jumpers were at the end of the left side of the solar panel of the laboratory, a segment known as port 6, or P6.
After no contamination with ammonia ice crystals was confirmed, the spacewalkers stored one jumper on the P6 segment for future problem solving that would be needed on the side of the station, while the others were mounted outside the air for use if later on. the right side.
“Of course, extra vigilance is needed when we are dealing with ammonia due to the concern that if we get ammonia pollution on the pack, and then bring the indoor station, it could be a potential situation for the crew and the station in the toxic atmosphere. “” spacewalk, flight director Chris Edelen said earlier.
Glover installed a replacement wireless camera receiver near the central Unity module, while Hopkins worked at the front of the station where the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory module was attached.
An external experiment platform, known as Bartolomeo, was formerly attached to the front of Columbus, but spacewalkers had trouble completing electrical connections during an earlier outing. Hopkins struggled Saturday to complete the work, but eventually succeeded with three of four cables.
NASA TV
Glover replaced a wireless camera receiver and attached a booster to a flexible heat shield on the outside of the Quest airspace. He complained of an unusual irritation that briefly tore his right eye, but said it appeared to blink repeatedly.
Hopkins also reconfigured a HAM radio antenna on the European Columbus module that could not work properly after a recent upgrade, and both spacewalkers began routing two Ethernet cables that would eventually be part of an extensive external wifi network. .
NASA TV
NASA TV
“Parked! It’s over the middle,” Hopkins exclaimed as the first beam-like connector was plugged in and locked. “Beautiful! And the crowd goes wild!”
“Good job, wow, excellent,” Andreas Mogensen replied from mission control. “Good news.”
“I would say ‘touchdown,’ but he played on the wrong side of the ball,” Glover said, referring to Hopkins’ football career as a defensive back from the University of Illinois.
“We intercepted from time to time,” Hopkins said.
The wireless video system, external receiver, or WETA, installed by Glover, is one of three installed around the station’s exterior. The unit in question failed late last year.
“It’s actually an antenna that receives the broadcasts of the helmcams from the crew members,” Edelen said. “We … appreciate that we need to have it during mission control during EVAs to be able to see the perspective of the crew members to see exactly what they are working on. So we definitely want to … replace it so that we are well covered.”
All the major tasks were originally planned for space travel earlier this month, but have been postponed after the assembly of two solar-assisted equipment took longer than expected.
The spacewalk ended at 3:01 p.m. for a duration of six hours and 47 minutes. The total space-time for stations by 237 excursions now stands at 1,491 hours and 54 minutes, or 62.2 days.
It was the fourth career space for Glover and Hopkins’ fifth.