Spacewalking Astronauts Outfit ISS For New Cargo Ship
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 28 March 2005
8:43 a.m. ET
Two astronauts are safely back inside the International Space Station
(ISS) after apparently breezing through an early morning spacewalk
designed to prepare the orbital facility for a new cargo ship.
ISS Expedition 10 commander Leroy Chiao and flight engineer Salizhan
Sharipov left the space station empty as they worked outside clad in
Russian-built Orlan spacesuits.
The two men were consistently ahead of schedule as they installed
antennas and photographed the space station, ultimately completing their
tasks 4.5 hours after leaving the Pirs docking compartment at 1:25:20
a.m. EST (0625:20 GMT).
“Now that we have time to actually look around, it's too bad it’s all
dark outside,” said Chiao as he prepared to reenter the ISS as it flew
over an Earth draped in night.
Chiao and Sharipov worked primarily on the space station’s Russian
Zvezda service module, installing a trio of navigation antennas around
its conical smaller section. The space-to-space antennas – known as WAL
antennas – will be used to aid the docking operations of Europe’s
Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) during future ISS-bound cargo mission.
Another piece of hardware – a global positioning system (GPS) unit
attached to Zvezda during the spacewalk – will also aid the ATV, which
NASA officials said is expected to arrive at the ISS sometime next year.
NASA officials said the first ATV, called Jules Verne, will be able to
deliver 8.5 tons of cargo to the ISS, including some 10,000 pounds
(4,535 kilograms) of propellant.
NanoSputnik
In addition to installing the new antennas, the Expedition 10 crew also
deployed a small satellite in what may be the ultimate Hail Mary pass.
After the Expedition 10 crew successfully connected the first three
antennas, Sharipov returned to the Pirs docking compartment, to which he
had lashed the small satellite NanoSputnik. Weighing just 11 pounds
(five kilograms) and about one foot in length, the satellite carries a
transmitter and is designed to test small spacecraft control and
orientation systems over about 100 days in space.
"Off it goes," Sharipov said as he threw the long nanosatellite into
space at a velocity of about one meter (3.2 feet) per second. "It's
rotating a bit, but it should be okay."
Sharipov tossed NanoSputnik into a retrograde orbit - opposite the
direction of the space station's motion - at about 3:31 a.m. EST (0831
GMT) while Chiao photographed the in-space launch.
"Congratulations and huge thank you to you because our scientists are
saying they are getting a signal from the satellite," Russian flight
controllers later told Sharipov.
Just a small drift
Before Chiao and Sharipov could move back to the Zvezda module and
install the GPS unit, Russian flight controllers had to take the space
station’s attitude control thrusters – which help the ISS maintain its
position – offline to avoid harming or contaminating the spacewalking
duo with toxic propellant.
Instead, the space station’s attitude was kept in check by U.S.-built
gyroscopes. U.S. flight controllers had only anticipated the station’s
two working gyroscopes last about 30 minutes, after which time the loads
on the ISS would be too great and the station would be left to drift
while the Expedition 10 crew completed their work near the Russian
thrusters.
But NASA commentators said the gyroscopes performed much longer than
anticipated, and were only overwhelmed at 5:15 a.m. EST (1015 GMT). The
ISS drifted freely for less than an hour, a dramatic difference from the
three hours expected by U.S. flight controllers.
By 6:31 a.m. EST (1131 GMT), Chiao and Sharipov had repressurized the
Pirs docking compartment and doffed their space suits. The successful
extravehicular activity marked the sixth spacewalk for Chiao and the
second for Sharipov.
Together they have amassed a total of nine hours and 58 minutes of
spacewalk time during the two Expedition 10 spacewalks. Including
today’s event, ISS astronauts have spent 358 hours and 15 minutes
working outside the space station. About 181 hours of that time is
spread across 33 spacewalks staged from the ISS itself, NASA officials said.
The Expedition 10 crew currently has less than a month of on-orbit
mission time remaining, with Chiao and Sharipov expecting to return to
Earth on April 25.
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