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Two US Astronauts Finish Third Spacewalk Outside ISS
Washington (AFP) Feb 8, 2007 International Space Station commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and fellow US astronaut Sunita Williams on Thursday completed the third spacewalk in nine days at the orbiting space station, the US space agency NASA said. Lopez-Alegria has logged a record-setting 61 hours, 22 minutes in 10 spacewalks, besting the previous US mark for extravehicular activity -- EVA as the walks are called by NASA -- by two hours and 50 minutes. The mark is still far behind Russian world record-holder and cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov, who has clocked 82 hours in spacewalks. Astronaut Williams, for her part, broke the women's record on the mission's second EVA on Sunday. In all, she has been on four spacewalks for a total of 29 hours, 17 minutes. Thursday's spacewalk outside the ISS lasted six hours, 40 minutes. During the three spacewalks lasting more than 20 hours, the two astronauts completed the rewiring of new electrical and air-conditioning systems crucial for the installation later this year of a European laboratory on the ISS. In addition, on Wednesday the pair removed two large shrouds that provided thermal shading to a section of the ISS but which had become redundant when the station was re-oriented. They also did some preparatory work for a cargo carrier that will be attached in a future shuttle mission. Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin will suit up in Russian Orlan spacesuits for a Russian spacewalk on February 22 to unfurl an antenna of the Progress 23 unpiloted cargo carrier, docked at the Russian Svezda service module. The four spacewalks will mark the most ever done by an ISS crew in such a short period of time, January 31-February 22. The next space shuttle mission to the ISS will take place in mid-March. The last one took place in December. 2007 will be a busy year for the construction of the ISS with six shuttle flights scheduled by the time the European laboratory Columbus is installed toward the end of the year. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has scheduled 14 space shuttle flights to complete the construction of the ISS by 2010, before all three remaining shuttles are permanently withdrawn from service.
earlier related report Lopez-Alegria and Williams moved from the airlock out to Crew Equipment Transfer Aid carts on the rails of the main truss. Pushing one cart with their equipment, including a foot restraint, they moved to the Port 3 truss segment. Their first job was to remove two thermal shrouds, one from each of two Rotary Joint Motor Controllers on P3. Next, they removed two large shrouds from P3 Bays 18 and 20. The shrouds, larger than king-size bed sheets, provide thermal shading. With the station in its present orientation, they are no longer needed and are being removed to avoid trapping heat. Lopez-Alegria jettisoned them toward the rear of the station. Afterward, the Unpressurized Cargo Carrier Assembly Attachment Systems on the upper face of the P3 truss was deployed. That was done in preparation for attachment of a cargo carrier during a future shuttle mission. While Lopez-Alegria finished work on the assembly attachment system, Williams moved to the end of the P5 truss to remove two launch locks in preparation for the relocation of the P6 truss. The final scheduled task of the spacewalk was connecting four cables of the Station to Shuttle Power Transfer System to Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 (PMA-2) at the forward end of the Destiny laboratory where shuttles dock. This will allow visiting shuttles to take power from the station to extend their missions. Work began on the system during the Jan. 31 spacewalk, and two of the cables were routed and connected to PMA-2 on the Feb. 4 spacewalk. The last four cables were connected to the PMA Thursday. The astronauts did complete one get-ahead task to photograph a suspect connector on the outboard end of PMA-2. It carries station shuttle communications when the shuttle is docked but hatches are closed. Communications have been intermittent during recent shuttle missions. Throughout the spacewalk, Chris Looper in Johnson Space Center's Mission Control advised Lopez-Alegria and Williams and monitored their tasks. Looper is the chief engineer for the Astronaut Office Spacewalk Branch. Approximately 3 hours, 50 minutes into his ninth spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria set a record for cumulative spacewalk time by a U.S. astronaut at 61 hours, 22 minutes. Jerry Ross previously held the title with 58 hours, 32-minutes accumulated during nine spacewalks. The three spacewalks from the Quest airlock in U.S. spacesuits and a Russian spacewalk on Feb. 22 are the most ever done by station crew members during such a short period. Starting from scratch, it takes crew members about 100 hours to prepare for a spacewalk. By doing the U.S. spacewalks just a few days apart, considerable crew time can be saved by not having to repeat some of the preparation. Thursday's spacewalk was the 80th for station assembly and maintenance. It was the 52nd from the station and the 32nd from Quest. It was the fourth for Williams, the most for any woman. During the Feb. 22 spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin will wear Russian Orlan suits to work on an antenna on the Progress 23 cargo ship docked at the aft port of the Zvezda service module. The antenna did not properly retract when that spacecraft docked in October. The spacewalkers will try to secure or remove the antenna to avoid any interference with the undocking of a Progress in April. The spacewalk will be the 10th for Lopez Alegria and will set a new record. Related Links Station at NASA Space Station News at Space-Travel.Com Station at NASA Station and More at Roscosmos S.P. Korolev RSC Energia Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Station News at Space-Travel.Com
ISS Crew Conduct Back To Back Spacewalks Over Several Days
Houston TX (SPX) Feb 04, 2007Following Sunday's second spacewalk of the series, Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, with eight spacewalks totaling 54 hours and 42 minutes, now ranks third on the all-time list behind Jerry Ross and Anatoly Solovyev. He will equal Ross' mark of nine spacewalks on Thursday and vault past him into second place for the most spacewalk time by an American astronaut at the 3 hour and 50 minute mark. He surpasses Ross' record for most spacewalks by an American on Feb. 22 during the Russian outing. |
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