NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover took a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Saturday to upgrade the lab’s communications and cooling systems. The walk, which took place about 400 kilometers above the Earth, took almost seven hours.
Struggling with poor electrical connectors, Hopkins managed to connect and secure three of the four thick power and data cables required by a European experiment platform during a challenging spacewalk, leaving one cable for additional troubleshooting.
Hopkins and his teammate Victor Glover also released residual ammonia coolant from two jumpers used to service the station’s thermal control system, stowing the hoses in different locations for future use if necessary. One jumper spewed out more ammonia ice crystals than expected when it was vented to space, but the astronauts said their suits did not appear to be contaminated with flakes that could be returned to the station.
Floating in the Quest airlock, Hopkins and Glover embarked on Saturday’s excursion when they switched their spacesuits to battery power at 8:14 a.m. EST, beginning the 237th spacewalk dedicated to station assembly and maintenance since inception. of construction in 1998.
The first task on the agenda was to safely vent the two ammonia jumpers, which are used to load coolant into the station’s thermal control system and detect leaks. The jumpers were located all the way to the left of the lab’s solar power bundle, a segment known as port 6 or P6.
After determining that there was no contamination with ammonia ice crystals, the spacewalkers tucked one jumper on the P6 segment for any future troubleshooting on that side of the station, while the other was mounted outside the airlock for use later on the right side if needed.
“Of course, extra vigilance when dealing with ammonia is necessary because of concerns that if we get ammonia contamination on the suits and then bring it to the station, it could be a potentially toxic atmosphere for the crew and the station,” said Spacewalk Flight Director Chris Nobles rather.
When the jumper deflation and relocation were complete, Glover installed a replacement wireless camera transceiver near the central Unity module, while Hopkins worked at the front of the station where the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory module is attached.
An external experiment platform known as Bartolomeo had previously been attached to the front of Columbus, but spacewalkers had problems making electrical connections on an earlier outing. Hopkins struggled to get the job done on Saturday, but finally succeeded with three of the four cables.
NASA TV
Glover replaced a wireless camera transceiver and attached a stiffener to a flexible thermal cover on the Quest airlock’s exterior hatch. He complained of an unusual irritation that briefly tore his right eye, but said repeated blinking seemed to help.
Hopkins also reconfigured a HAM radio antenna on the European Columbus module that was not working properly after a recent upgrade, and both spacewalkers began working on laying two Ethernet cables that will eventually become part of an extensive external Wi-Fi network.
NASA TV
NASA TV
It’s over center, Hopkins shouted as the first beam-like connector plugged in and locked in place. “Nice! And the crowd is going wild!”
“Well done, wow, excellent”, Andreas Mogensen replied from Mission Control. “Good news.”
“I’d say touchdown, but he was playing on the wrong side of the ball,” joked Glover, referring to Hopkins ‘college football career as the University of Illinois’ defensive back.
“We’ve done interceptions from time to time,” Hopkins said.
The wireless video system external transceiver assembly, or WETA, that Glover installed is one of three mounted around the outside of the station. The unit in question failed at the end of last year.
“This is essentially an antenna that receives the broadcasts from the crewmembers’ helmet cameras,” said Edelen. “We … really appreciate having this in mission control during EVAs to be able to have the crew members’ perspective to see exactly what they are working on. So we absolutely want to … Coverage. “
All major tasks were originally scheduled for spacewalks earlier this month, but they were postponed after mounting two solar support fixtures took longer than expected.
The spacewalk ended at 3:01 PM for a duration of six hours and 47 minutes. The station’s total spacewalk time through 237 excursions is now 1,491 hours and 54 minutes, or 62.2 days.
This was Glover’s fourth career spacewalk and Hopkins’ fifth.