NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover took a space walk outside the International Space Station on Saturday to upgrade the lab’s communications and cooling system. Walking about 250 miles from Earth, lasted about seven hours.
Struggling with obscure electrical connectors, Hopkins helped plug and secure the four thick power and data cables required by the European Experiment Platform during the challenging spacewalk, leaving one cable for additional troubleshooting.
Hopkins and Crumate Victor Glover also provided residual ammonia coolant from two of the jumpers used to service the station’s thermal control system, blocking the hose at various locations for future use if necessary. A jumper produced more ammonia ice crystals than expected when ventilating the space, but astronauts said their suits did not appear to be contaminated with any flakes that could be brought back into the station.
Hopkins and Glover began their journey on Saturday, kicking off the 237th spacewalk dedicated to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, when they turned their spacesuits into battery power at 8:14 a.m.
The first task on the agenda was to safely vent two ammonia jumpers, which are used to load coolant into the station’s thermal control system and help track leaks. The jumpers were located on the far left of the lab’s solar power truss, known as Segment Port 6, or P6.
After confirming any contamination with ammonia ice crystals, the spacewalks installed a jumper on the P6 segment to prevent any future trouble that may be needed on that side of the station while another on the right was mounted outside the airlock for use if needed.
“Of course, when dealing with ammonia, we need to be extra vigilant because of the concern that if we have ammonia contamination on the suits, and then it is brought inside the station, which could represent a potentially toxic environment for the crew and the station. . ” Flight Director Chris Adelen said earlier.
Upon completion of the jumper venting and relocation, Glover installed a replacement wireless camera marrow transceiver near the Central Unity module while working at the front end of the Hopkins station where the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory module is connected.
An external experiment platform called the Bartolomeo was previously attached to the front of Columbus, but the spacewalker had difficulty completing electrical connections during a previous outing. Hopkins struggled to complete the job on Saturday, but eventually succeeded with three of the four cables.
NASA TV
Glover replaced the wireless camera with my transceiver and attached the stiffener with a flexible thermal cover to the outer hatch of the Quest Airlock. He complained of abnormal inflammation that caused his right eye to rupture soon, but said frequent blinking helps.
Hopkins also reconfigured the HAM radio antenna on a European Columbus module that failed to function properly after a recent upgrade, and both spacecraft began routing two Ethernet cables that would eventually be part of an expanded external Wi-Fi network.
NASA TV
NASA TV
“Matted! It’s above the center,” Hubble Pickins is called when the first balky connector was plugged in and replaced. “Great! And the crowd went wild!”
“Good job, wow, excellent,” replied Andres Mogensen from Mission Control. “Good news.”
“I would say touchdown, but he played on the wrong side of the ball,” Glover said, referring to Hopkins’ college football career as the defensive back of the University of Illinois.
Hopkins said, “We interrupted once after a while.
The wireless video system is one of three external transceiver assemblies, or WETA, that Glover installs mounted around the outer part of the station. The unit in question failed late last year.
“These are essentially antennas that receive transitions from crew members’ helmets,” Adele said. “We … appreciate coming into mission control during the EVA so that they will be able to see what they are doing from the point of view of the crew members. So we definitely want … this to be changed so that we have better coverage.”
All of the original major works were built for the spacewalks earlier this month, but they were postponed after the assembly of the two solar array support fixtures took longer than expected.
The spacewalk arrived at 3:01 p.m., six hours and 47 minutes apart. The total orbital station spacewalk time is now 1,491 hours and 54 minutes, or 62.2 days.
This was the fourth of Glover and Hopkins’ fifth career.
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