On account of the continuing assessment by NASA managers and engineers after a coolant leak from a backup radiator on the International Space Station’s Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, a spacewalk that was focused for no sooner than Thursday, Oct. 19 now could be deferred till later this yr.
The spacewalk date was adjusted to permit engineers further time to finish evaluation of the coolant leak, which occurred and stopped on Oct. 9. The coolant shouldn’t be poisonous or hazardous for the crew, however specialists are discussing finest maintain small traces of the substance from stepping into some inside techniques to keep away from tools degradation over time. The duties deliberate for this spacewalk will not be time-sensitive and the schedule adjustment has no impression on area station operations.
A spacewalk scheduled for Monday, Oct. 30, now turns into U.S. Spacewalk 89. Throughout that spacewalk, NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli will exit the station’s Quest airlock to finish the removing of a defective electronics field, known as a Radio Frequency Group, from a communications antenna bracket and exchange one in all twelve Trundle Bearing Assemblies on the port truss Photo voltaic Alpha Rotary Joint. The bearings allow the station’s photo voltaic arrays to rotate correctly to trace the Solar because the station orbits the Earth. Throughout this spacewalk, Moghbeli will function EVA crew member 1 and O’Hara will function EVA crew member 2. This would be the first spacewalk for each O’Hara and Moghbeli.
Later this yr, O’Hara and ESA (European House Company) astronaut Andreas Mogensen will conduct what is going to change into U.S. Spacewalk 90, to gather samples for evaluation to see whether or not microorganisms could exist on the outside of the orbital advanced. In addition they will exchange a high-definition digicam on the port truss of the station and conduct different upkeep work to arrange for future spacewalks.
In the meantime, a spacewalk by Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub stays scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 25. Throughout that spacewalk, Kononenko and Chub will set up an artificial radar communications system on the Russian section of the orbiting laboratory and deploy a nanosatellite to check photo voltaic sail know-how. As well as, they plan to examine and {photograph} the backup radiator that leaked on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.
Spacewalk preparations continued aboard the International Space Station because the Expedition 70 astronauts and cosmonauts serviced their particular person spacesuits on Monday. Cargo operations are additionally underway because the orbital residents work contained in the Cygnus area freighter and look forward to the following SpaceX Dragon cargo mission.
Mogensen started Monday emptying and refilling water tanks and cleansing cooling loops inside a pair of spacesuits. Moghbeli accomplished the upkeep within the afternoon terminating the cooling loop work then deconfiguring the spacesuits.
Mogensen then spent the remainder of the afternoon partnering with O’Hara unpacking provides and loading trash inside Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft. Moghbeli joined Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) pre-packing cargo luggage that can be loaded aboard the following SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft to go to the orbiting lab. Furukawa started his day processing samples and swapping gasoline bottles contained in the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace, a excessive temperature thermophysics analysis system.
Kononenko and Chub spent Monday morning making ready for his or her upcoming spacewalk as they charged batteries and inspected life assist parts inside their Orlan spacesuits. Following that, Kononenko moved on to cardiac analysis whereas Chub checked and closed hatches between the Poisk airlock and the Roscosmos Progress 84 resupply ship.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov started his day engaged on the Elektron oxygen generator and different life assist parts. Within the afternoon, he assisted Kononenko along with his cardiac work and inspected parts of the Zvezda service module.
