Wearing a giant spacecraft, the Russian two cosmonauts began next year in preparation for an almost identical PIRS module to use the International Space Station’s Peace Po King King compartment for the first time on the spacewalk on Wednesday. A new laboratory module will be erected in its place later.
Expedition 64 commanders Sergei Ryazikov and Sergei Kud-Sverkov started the eighth spacewalk of the year at 10:12 am. The tour, the first for both cosmonauts, arrives just two days later Arrival of four astronauts SpaceX crew aboard the Dragon Merchant Ferry Ship.
For identification, Ryzykov is wearing a spacesuit with the sign LV EV-1, red stripes and using a helmet camera 20 while Kud-Sverkov, EV-2, is using blue stripes and a helmetcam 18 suit.
Similar to Pierce, Poisk was launched about 11 years ago, on November 10, and two days later connected to the upper port of the Zvezda module. It has been used many times as a docking port for unpiled progress cargo carriers and Soyuz crew ferry ships but never as an airline.
NASA
Before exiting, the cosmonauts spent about an hour making sure that the never-used side hatch of the pasisk could be safely opened and tightly closed with an airtight seal and the hatch compartment leading to the main part of the station was freed. On or near the vacuum.
Wearing their Orlan spacesuits, Ryzykov and Kud-Sverkokov partially frustrated Poisk for an early round of leak checks. NASA’s Crumate Kate Rubins conducted similar tests from inside the Russian part of the station.
Cosmons ts took Poisk into a vacuum, opened the side spacewalk hatch for the first time in the module’s history and checked its seal for signs of foreign object debris or damage. Spare sealing materials are available if needed, but no indications of difficulty were found in the inspection.
They then closed the hatch and ran additional leak checks before reopening and floating out at 11 a.m. to turn on the 232nd spacewalk dedicated to station assembly and maintenance, the eighth station EVA this year.
The first thing on the agenda was 20 years ago. Launched in the 20s, the first component of the station was to replace the fluid flow regulator on the Russian Zaria module.
Cosmons then planned to retrieve the Materials Science Space Exposure Plate from the Pierce module and disconnect the telemetry cable. The cable will be reconnected to the poisk, beginning the process of ending the use of the peer as an airlock.
After cleaning the window on the Zvezda module, the astronauts planned to reconfigure the rocket plum impedance detector and retrieve the experimental train to help engineers assess the effects of the micrometer oid. His final task is to photograph the exterior of the Russian section.
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