– Two NASA astronauts tied a spacewalk record as they prepared the International Space Station for future updates.
Bob Behnken, who arrived at the space station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon DM-2 spacecraft in late May, and Expedition 63 commander Chris Cassidy conducted their fourth spacewalk together on Tuesday (July 21). The 5-hour, 29-minute excursion marked the tenth extravehicular activity, or EVA, of both crewmates, tying the record for the most number of spacewalks ever conducted by an American, as did two other astronauts as well.
“Does the tenth feel like the first?” Behnken asked Cassidy after the EVA was completed.
“No, a little more comfortable in the tenth than in the first,” Cassidy replied. “However, the view is always amazing.”
Behnken and Cassidy began the spacewalk on Tuesday at 7:12 am EDT (1112 GMT), with a list of maintenance tasks to tackle.
By quickly getting your first jobs done, installing a toolkit at the base of the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm and photographing your workplace from a previous spacewalk to upgrade the batteries for the station’s power system, Behnken and Cassidy worked on removing two devices called “H-Fixtures” that helped manage the station’s solar panels before the panels were released.
Behnken had attempted to remove one of the accessories on a previous spacewalk, but was unable to release it. For this EVA, the astronauts were prepared with a combination of tools, including an electric drill (pistol grip tool), tape-wrapped pliers and a long-handled wrench, as well as a 3D printed wedge aboard the station space for this task (although it turned out not to be necessary).
“It took a little bit of effort and push,” Cassidy said after releasing the first accessory H from a container at the base of one of the dies. “That was a fairly skillful use of the tools available on the space station.”
“It really takes some oomph,” Behnken reported before releasing the second accessory.
With that full two-hour job on the spacewalk, the astronauts put away their tools, repositioned a portable footrest, and reestablished their restraints before heading to the station’s Tranquility Node 3 to begin preparing the module for the installation of the first commercial lock. from the outpost. .
The Nanoracks Bishop Airlock, which derives its name from the diagonally moving chess piece, will increase the station’s ability to deploy commercial cubesats and other small satellites. The bell-shaped module is slated to launch on a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft later this year.
Behnken and Cassidy worked on the final cone of Tranquility, configuring it for the addition of the Bishop’s Lock. The two astronauts first removed a cover from the pressurized coupling adapter that had been installed to replace a lost heat shield.
“The question is, are we trying to do it one more time or not?” Behnken asked as he and Cassidy worked to put away the voluminous cake topper.
“End of the ‘pizza’ towards the crust,” Cassidy replied.
The two spacewalkers also tied three thermal covers and scratched a small patch of debris, cleaning the final cone for the airlock.
Moving on to their final tasks, Cassidy and Behnken redirected the cables to a new wireless data system and removed a filter from a camera lens.
Behnken and Cassidy reentered and began pressurizing the station’s Quest Lock at 12:41 pm EDT (1641 GMT), marking the end of their spacewalk.
In a pre-EVA press release Tuesday, NASA identified the event as the 300th spacewalk by American astronauts since Ed White left his Gemini 4 spacecraft in 1965. To reach that total, the space agency redefined what That constitutes an American EVA, including the first time seven trash launches that the Apollo astronauts performed while still on the moon.
Tuesday’s spacewalk was also the 231st EVA in support of the assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station. Since 1998, astronauts and cosmonauts have spent 60 days, 12 hours, and 3 minutes working outside the laboratory in orbit.
After taking 10 spacewalks each, Behnken and Cassidy equaled the US record for most EVAs performed by an American first set by Michael Lopez-Alegria in 2007 and then tied by Peggy Whitson in 2017. Behnken He has now logged 61 hours and 10 minutes working in the vacuum of space. Cassidy has now spent a total of 54 hours and 51 minutes walking through space.
Behnken now ranks fourth and Cassidy ranks ninth on the world all-time list for total time on spacewalks.
