Spaceflight Now reports that two Russian spacewalkers “floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and isolated a leaking radiator as planned, apparently causing residual coolant still trapped inside to make its way to the leak site and spew out into space.” Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko “planned to sop up the pooling coolant with a cloth towel, but was told to leave the area immediately when he reported some of the liquid had made it onto a safety tether.” The tether “was secured in a bag and procedures were already in place to make sure the cosmonauts’ spacesuits were clear of any such contamination before they re-entered the space station at the end of the spacewalk.” In the meantime, Kononenko and crewmate Nikolai Chub “pressed ahead with work to attach a small synthetic aperture radar antenna to the hull of the Nauka module.” One of its four panels “failed to fully deploy and lock in place, and officials said adjustments would be made in a future spacewalk.” Finally, Kononenko and Chub “released a small student-built ‘nanosatellite,’ but the solar sail propulsion system it was designed to test failed to deploy.” After making a final attempt “to coax the balky radar panel into place, the cosmonauts called it a day.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Tag: spacewalk
NASA Postpones Spacewalk Due to Coolant Leak from Russian ISS Module
SPACE reports NASA officials have postponed a planned spacewalk from the ISS “as a precautionary measure after a leak of ammonia coolant was spotted Monday (Oct. 9) in a backup radiator on the Russian Nauka science module. Another spacewalk on Oct. 20 is also postponed and new dates will be announced shortly, NASA officials stated.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Astronauts Install Hardware on Outside of ISS
CNN reports, “First-time spacewalkers and NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio began their excursion outside the space station at 9:14 a.m. ET and ended at 4:25 p.m. ET, lasting for 7 hours and 11 minutes.” The purpose of the excursion was to assemble a mounting bracket on the space station’s starboard side, which will allow for more rollout solar arrays (iROSAs), which will increase the power to the space station. “The first two rollout solar arrays were installed outside the station in June 2021. Six iROSAs total have been planned and will likely boost the space station’s power generation by more than 30% once all are operational.”
Full Story (CNN)
NASA Astronauts to Conduct Spacewalk Thursday After Delay Due to Space Debris
SPACE reports that NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron “will conduct a spacewalk previously scheduled for Tuesday (Nov. 30) on Thursday (Dec. 2) after the agency evaluated the risks posed by space debris.” NASA officials wrote, “NASA determined the orbit of the debris does not pose a risk to a scheduled spacewalk by Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron or to International Space Station operations. Delaying the spacewalk provided an opportunity for NASA to evaluate the risk from the debris notification.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Russian Cosmonauts Conduct Second Spacewalk
CNN reports that cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov “conducted their second spacewalk in less than a week as they continue configurations for the new Nauka module for operations on the International Space Station.” The spacewalk was conducted Thursday despite a fire alarm going off on Wednesday night. Novitskiy and Dubrov installed handrails and routed cables left unfinished by last week’s spacewalk.
Full Story (CNN)
Spacewalk to Install ISS Solar Arrays Scheduled for Friday
CBS News reports that French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk from the International Space Station on Friday. The goal of the spacewalk, scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. EDT, is to install the second ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs). NASA “plans to install iROSA panels on six of the space station’s eight original solar wings, all of which have suffered age-related degradation, including rocket plume deposits from visiting cargo and crew ships and impacts from micrometeoroids.”
Full Story (CBS News)