Two Russian cosmonauts reentered an airlock after efficiently relocating a special airlock throughout a spacewalk exterior of the Worldwide House Station.
Expedition 69 commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin, each with the Russian federal house company Roscosmos, accomplished their outing on Wednesday (Could 3) at 11:11 p.m. EDT (0311 GMT Could 4). Through the 7 hour and 11 minute spacewalk, the cosmonauts oversaw the transfer of an tools airlock from the facet of 1 module to the facet of one other on the Russian phase of the house station.
Prokopyev and Petelin started the extravehicular exercise (EVA) at 4:00 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) by first making their solution to the Rassvet mini-research module, the place the soon-to-be-moved airlock had been mounted since its launch on NASA’s STS-132 house shuttle mission in Could 2010. As soon as there, they disconnected six interface cables between the airlock and module, eliminated protecting covers and unlocked launch locks to permit the airlock to be disconnected.Â
The work space and duties had been acquainted to Prokopyev and Petelin, who beforehand labored collectively two weeks in the past (April 18 to April 19) to equally switch a radiator from Rassvet to the identical vacation spot because the tools airlock, the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, which was launched in July 2021.
Associated: Probably the most memorable spacewalks of all time in footage
As soon as the tools airlock was freed of its connections to Rassvet, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, an Expedition 69 flight engineer, labored from contained in the station to seize maintain of the airlock utilizing the European Robotic Arm (ERA) after which slowly moved it from Rassvet to Nauka. Because the 1,800-pound (816.5 kilograms) strain vessel cleared its earlier dwelling, Prokopyev and Petelin cleaned up its former connect level, eradicating airlock tie rods and shutting out insulation flaps.Â
In addition they bundled collectively a few of the spent supplies they might jettison overboard later within the spacewalk.
Prokopyev and Petelin then made their method over to Nauka to fulfill the airlock for its arrival. On their method, they stopped to examine and {photograph} the radiator they earlier repositioned in preparation for his or her subsequent spacewalk collectively on Could 12, when they’re scheduled to supervise the pressurization and deployment of the thermal management tools.Â
The 2 cosmonauts subsequent bought into place to assist Fedyaev align the airlock for its attachment to Nauka. With mild and gradual actions, the ERA manipulator introduced the airlock into contact with the module, however Fedyaev couldn’t get the airlock’s latches to attach.Â
So, Prokopyev and Petelin moved in nearer and, with one on all sides of the airlock, grabbed maintain of it and held it in place. Solely then was Fedyaev ready to make use of the robotic arm to push the airlock the ultimate method so the hooks could possibly be pushed closed.
“I can hear the drives working,” mentioned one of many cosmonauts simply previous the 5 hour mark into the EVA.
As soon as seize was confirmed and a tough mating was achieved, Prokopyev and Petelin set to work making the ability and knowledge connections between the Nauka module and newly put in airlock. There have been six cables needing to be run, with a connector on all sides. Among the connectors’ caps had been unexpectedly held in place with tape, such that the cosmonauts needed to fastidiously use a knife to chop away the adhesive.Â
The relocated airlock is meant to deploy Russian experiment pallets and small satellites from contained in the Nauka module. The station has two different related objective airlocks, one in Japan’s Kibo laboratory and the opposite the Nanoracks Bishop airlock, a industrial unit berthed to the U.S. Tranquility node. These experiment airlocks are completely different from the exits utilized by astronauts and cosmonauts to exit on spacewalks, that are a lot bigger.
With their work full, Prokopyev and Petelin cleaned up their instruments and translated again to the Poisk module to reenter the Worldwide House Station. Earlier than going again inside, Prokopyev tossed overboard an 11-pound (5 kilograms) package deal of spent tools and not wanted objects, together with 5 items collected from prior spacewalks. The bundle will finally fall again to Earth and burn it up within the ambiance.
“Alright, bye, bye,” mentioned Prokopyev as he jettisoned the rubbish. “It flies superbly.”
The spacewalk was the fifth for Prokopyev, who has now logged 37 hours and a couple of minutes on EVA. It was the third for Petelin, who has spent 21 hours and 31 minutes spacewalking.Â
The EVA was the fifth for the 12 months and the 262nd devoted to the meeting and upkeep of the orbiting lab.
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