Realtime coverage of U.S. EVA-22
07/09/2013 02:26 PM Filed in: Space News | International Space Station
By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News
02:20 PM EDT, 07/09/13: Spacewalk ends
Astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Luca Parmitano began repressurizing the International Space Station's Quest airlock at 2:09 p.m. EDT, closing out a six-hour seven-minute spacewalk. The astronauts plan to venture back outside next Tuesday to finish working through a backlog of maintenance and assembly tasks.
This was the 170th spacewalk, or EVA, devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the fourth of nine planned for this year, the fifth for Cassidy and the first for Parmitano, the first Italian to walk in space.
All told, 112 astronauts and cosmonauts representing nine nations have now logged 1,073 hours and 50 minutes of EVA time outside the station, or 44.7 days.
01:40 PM EDT, 07/09/13: Protective cover installed on forward docking port; astronauts, ahead of schedule, work 'get-ahead' tasks
Running well ahead of schedule, Luca Parmitano installed a protective cover over the forward port of the International Space Station where shuttles once docked.
With their primary objectives successfully accomplished, Parmitano and fellow spacewalker Christopher Cassidy worked through a handful of "get-ahead" tasks originally planned for a second spacewalk next week.
Cassidy began routing a so-called 1553 data cable between the Russian Zarya module and NASA's Tranquility module while Parmitano collected an equipment bag and mounted it near the station's airlock.
Earlier, carrying out another get ahead, Cassidy inspected a power and data grapple fixture on the Russian segment of the station where engineers believed a loose grounding wire might be visible. He was told to pull any slack out of the line, but Cassidy said he did not see anything amiss.
"It looks already done," he reported.
Connection of an ethernet cable that would route data to and from the robot arm attachment fixture was deferred to next week's spacewalk.
Summarizing, the spacewalkers:
Cassidy and Parmitano plan to stage a second spacewalk next Tuesday to complete a backlog of maintenance and assembly tasks.
12:20 PM EDT, 07/09/13: Second radiator clamp installed; bypass jumpers in work
A second radiator mounting clamp has been installed on the International Space Station's power truss, completing one of the major objectives of today's spacewalk. Astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Luca Parmitano completed the radiator grapple beam's attachment to the left side of the power truss at 11:43 a.m.
Running well ahead of schedule, Cassidy is now working to install bypass jumper cables on the Z1 truss atop the central Unity module. The work will be completed during a second spacewalk next Tuesday. The jumper cables will enable flight controllers to quickly reconfigure electrical loads in the wake of failures that otherwise would require a spacewalk.
Parmitano, meanwhile, got off the station's robot arm and stowed his foot restraint.
He and Cassidy plan to meet back up to install a protective cover over the station's forward port where space shuttles once docked. After the cover is in place, the spacewalkers will make their way back to the Quest airlock.
11:05 AM EDT, 07/09/13: First radiator clamp installed; astronauts ahead of schedule
Luca Parmitano and Christopher Cassidy have successfully mounted the first of two large clamps on the International Space Station's power truss. The clamps, known as radiator grapple beams, or RGBs would be used to secure large cooling radiators during any future repair or replacement.
The first RGB was installed on the right side of the power truss at 10:45 a.m. Parmitano, mounted on the end of the station's robot arm, then moved back toward the center of the station to retrieve a failed camera assembly mounted on the arm's mobile base station. He planned to hand the camera off to Cassidy, who will carry it to the station's airlock.
Parmitano then will pick up the second RGB and arm operator Karen Nyberg will move him toward the other side of the power truss where he and Cassidy will attach it to mounting brackets.
After the second RGB is installed, Cassidy will begin work to connect electrical bypass jumpers on the Z1 truss. The jumper cables will enable flight controllers to quickly reconfigure electrical loads in the wake of failures that otherwise would require a spacewalk.
Three hours into a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk, Cassidy and Parmitano were running about 25 minutes ahead of schedule.
09:35 AM EDT, 07/09/13: Ku-band transceiver replaced; materials science experiments retrieved
Ninety minutes into a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk, astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Luca Parmitano have completed their initial objectives.
After struggling a bit with a tight bolt, Cassidy replaced a Ku-band transceiver on the Z1 truss atop the International Space Station's central Unity module to restore redundancy to the lab's high-speed satellite communications network.
Parmitano, meanwhile, retrieved a pair of materials science space exposure experiments from a pallet on the right side of the station's solar power truss that will be returned to Earth later this year.
The astronauts now are turning their attention to moving the first of two large clamps that will be mounted on either side of the station's power truss to hold radiator panels in place if repairs or replacement are ever required.
Parmitano, the first Italian to walk in space, will be anchored to the end of the space station's robot arm for the work to install the radiator grapple beams, or RGBs. Astronaut Karen Nyberg will operate the arm from a robotics work station inside the Destiny lab module.
The astronauts have not encountered any significant problems and as of 09:30 a.m., they were running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
"Hey Chris, are you in a place where you can look down?" Parmitano radioed Cassidy as the station sailed 250 miles above Africa just south of Egypt.
"Yeah," Cassidy replied. "Not bad, huh?"
"It's amazing."
08:20 AM EDT, 07/09/13: Spacewalk begins
Floating in the International Space Station's Quest airlock module, astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Luca Parmitano switched their spacesuits to battery power at 8:02 a.m EDT (GMT-4), officially kicking off a planned six-and-a-half hour spacewalk.
The primary goals of the excursion are to replace a Ku-band communications transceiver; to install cabling needed by a Russian laboratory module scheduled for launch late this year; to retrieve a pair of space exposure materials science experiments; to mount a pair of radiator servicing attachment fittings; and to carry out routine maintenance.
For identification, Cassidy, call sign EV-1, is wearing a suit with red stripes using helmet camera No. 20. Parmitano, EV-2, is wearing an unmarked suit. The first Italian to walk in space, Parmitano is using helmet camera No. 17.
This is the 170th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the fourth so far this year, the fifth for Cassidy and the first for Parmitano.
Both men plan to carry out another spacewalk next Tuesday to complete a long list of maintenance and assembly tasks.
"Why spacewalks now? The program has collected a number of tasks over the last couple of years," said flight director David Korth. "We like to wait to do EVAs because EVAs cost a lot of crew time and in the era of science and utilization, we try to minimize the perturbation to the overall (schedule).
"So the program has strategically placed a couple of EVAs this summer to, as we call it, burn down the list of tasks that require EVA."
Regardless of the strategy, Cassidy and Parmitano said they were eager to venture outside.
"I remember distinctly the feeling the first time I opened the hatch and looking down at the planet," Cassidy said in a NASA interview. "I remember thinking, wow, holy cow, I'm really here!
"It probably was only half a second that I kind of froze and was awestruck by the situation, but it felt like it was probably a minute or two that I was gawking. Fortunately I moved on and quickly got about my work before (then crewmate) Dave Wolf could reach behind and smack me on the head and say, come on, new guy, let’s go!"
This time around, the "new guy" is Parmitano. And during a pre-launch news briefing, he said he wasn't taking anything for granted.
"Any spacewalk is challenging. ... just because the environment is so different from anything we know here on Earth," he said. "Chris and I have been training together underwater, preparing for the tasks we will be doing. It's a special challenge.
"Previously during the shuttle times, EVAs were highly choreographed, so everything was planned and choreographed and trained over and over again until every step was perfected. On the station, we don't have that luxury to train as much. So we need to be a lot more flexible."
Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said it takes about 100 hours of crew time to prepare for a spacewalk, time that is lost to research.
As a result, "what you try to do is to get in as many EVAs as you can before you have to re-check the suits, flush the cooling lines, or any number of things we have to do before we do an EVA," he said. "So there's an efficiency to try to go outside a few times in a row. If you know you've got enough tasks to keep you busy, then you try to get as much of those done (as you can)."
Cassidy, a former Navy SEAL, was first out of the Quest hatch, followed by Parmitano. Cassidy's first job was to move up to the Z1 truss atop the central Unity module to replace a space-to-ground transmitter receiver controller, part of a Ku-band communications link, that failed last December.
The system is redundant and station communications are operating normally. But a second failure would have a major impact and mission managers want to restore full redundancy to protect against possible problems in the future.
"We're becoming very reliant on the Ku system," Suffredini said. "So making sure we have this redundant capability is important to us. We can live without it, for sure, but it would be a big impact if we lost it."
While Cassidy works on the transceiver swap out, Parmitano will move to the right side of the station's solar power truss to retrieve a pair of space exposure experiment pallets that will be returned to Earth later this year aboard a commercial SpaceX Dragon cargo ship.
Parmitano also plans to photograph the massive Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics detector mounted nearby to help engineers assess its condition after two years in the space environment.
Cassidy and Parmitano then will team up to install two radiator grapple bars, or RGBs, that were delivered to the station aboard a Dragon cargo ship last March. The RGBs are needed, one on each side of the power truss, to hold radiator cooling panels if a swap out is ever required.
Parmitano, anchored to the end of the space station's robot arm, will carry one RGB to the right side of the truss where he and Cassidy will bolt it in place. Astronaut Karen Nyberg, operating the arm from inside the station's Destiny laboratory module, then will move Parmitano back toward the port side of the truss.
Along the way, he plans to remove a failed camera assembly from the robot arm's mobile base so it can be returned to Earth for refurbishment.
While that work is underway, Cassidy will install power and data cables between the Russian segment of the station and the Unity compartment that will be needed by a new Russian multi-purpose laboratory module, or MLM, that will serve as a laboratory, docking port and airlock.
The new module, known as Nauka, will replace the current Pirs airlock compartment. It is scheduled for launch aboard an unmanned Proton booster late this year, but NASA insiders say the flight could slip to the spring timeframe because of assembly delays in Russia.
A Proton rocket carrying three navigation satellites veered out of control, broke apart and crashed seconds after launch July 2 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Protons currently are grounded pending an investigation, but the expected Nauka delay is unrelated to the launch failure. In any case, Protons should be back in service well before the MLM is ready for flight.
After installing the MLM wiring, Cassidy will take the failed camera assembly from Parmitano and carry it back to the Quest airlock. Parmitano, meanwhile, will carry the second RGB to the port side of the truss.
After helping Parmitano install the left-side RGB, Cassidy will begin routing so-called Y-bypass jumper cables on the Z1 truss that will enable flight controllers to quickly reconfigure electrical loads in the wake of failures that otherwise would require a spacewalk.
While Cassidy works to install the bypass jumpers -- the work will be completed during next week's spacewalk -- Nyberg will maneuver Parmitano back to the center of the power truss where he will get off the robot arm and stow the foot restraint that anchored him in place.
Cassidy and Parmitano will meet back up for the final major task of the day, installing a protective cover over the station's forward port where space shuttles once docked. After that, the duo will head back to the Quest airlock and call it a day.
CBS News
02:20 PM EDT, 07/09/13: Spacewalk ends
Astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Luca Parmitano began repressurizing the International Space Station's Quest airlock at 2:09 p.m. EDT, closing out a six-hour seven-minute spacewalk. The astronauts plan to venture back outside next Tuesday to finish working through a backlog of maintenance and assembly tasks.
This was the 170th spacewalk, or EVA, devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the fourth of nine planned for this year, the fifth for Cassidy and the first for Parmitano, the first Italian to walk in space.
All told, 112 astronauts and cosmonauts representing nine nations have now logged 1,073 hours and 50 minutes of EVA time outside the station, or 44.7 days.
01:40 PM EDT, 07/09/13: Protective cover installed on forward docking port; astronauts, ahead of schedule, work 'get-ahead' tasks
Running well ahead of schedule, Luca Parmitano installed a protective cover over the forward port of the International Space Station where shuttles once docked.
With their primary objectives successfully accomplished, Parmitano and fellow spacewalker Christopher Cassidy worked through a handful of "get-ahead" tasks originally planned for a second spacewalk next week.
Cassidy began routing a so-called 1553 data cable between the Russian Zarya module and NASA's Tranquility module while Parmitano collected an equipment bag and mounted it near the station's airlock.
Earlier, carrying out another get ahead, Cassidy inspected a power and data grapple fixture on the Russian segment of the station where engineers believed a loose grounding wire might be visible. He was told to pull any slack out of the line, but Cassidy said he did not see anything amiss.
"It looks already done," he reported.
Connection of an ethernet cable that would route data to and from the robot arm attachment fixture was deferred to next week's spacewalk.
Summarizing, the spacewalkers:
- Installed a replacement Ku-band communications transceiver to replace a unit that failed last December
- Mounted two radiator grapple beam support clamps to the port and starboard sides of the station's power truss; the RGBs are designed to secure radiator panels during repair or replacement work
- Retrieved a pair of materials science space exposure experiments
- Retrieved a television camera assembly that needs repairs
- Routed bypass jumper cables to permit more efficient recovery from electrical problems
- Installed a protective cover over the station's forward docking port
- Routed power and data cables that will be needed when a new Russian laboratory module arrives late this year or early next
- Inspected a robot arm attachment fitting on the Russian Zarya module
- Moved an equipment bag back to the Quest airlock
Cassidy and Parmitano plan to stage a second spacewalk next Tuesday to complete a backlog of maintenance and assembly tasks.
12:20 PM EDT, 07/09/13: Second radiator clamp installed; bypass jumpers in work
A second radiator mounting clamp has been installed on the International Space Station's power truss, completing one of the major objectives of today's spacewalk. Astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Luca Parmitano completed the radiator grapple beam's attachment to the left side of the power truss at 11:43 a.m.
Running well ahead of schedule, Cassidy is now working to install bypass jumper cables on the Z1 truss atop the central Unity module. The work will be completed during a second spacewalk next Tuesday. The jumper cables will enable flight controllers to quickly reconfigure electrical loads in the wake of failures that otherwise would require a spacewalk.
Parmitano, meanwhile, got off the station's robot arm and stowed his foot restraint.
He and Cassidy plan to meet back up to install a protective cover over the station's forward port where space shuttles once docked. After the cover is in place, the spacewalkers will make their way back to the Quest airlock.
11:05 AM EDT, 07/09/13: First radiator clamp installed; astronauts ahead of schedule
 |
| Astronaut Luca Parmitano, anchored to the end of the space station's robot arm, prepares to pick up a radiator grapple beam after removing a failed camera on the arm's mobile base station. (Credit: NASA TV) |
The first RGB was installed on the right side of the power truss at 10:45 a.m. Parmitano, mounted on the end of the station's robot arm, then moved back toward the center of the station to retrieve a failed camera assembly mounted on the arm's mobile base station. He planned to hand the camera off to Cassidy, who will carry it to the station's airlock.
Parmitano then will pick up the second RGB and arm operator Karen Nyberg will move him toward the other side of the power truss where he and Cassidy will attach it to mounting brackets.
After the second RGB is installed, Cassidy will begin work to connect electrical bypass jumpers on the Z1 truss. The jumper cables will enable flight controllers to quickly reconfigure electrical loads in the wake of failures that otherwise would require a spacewalk.
Three hours into a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk, Cassidy and Parmitano were running about 25 minutes ahead of schedule.
09:35 AM EDT, 07/09/13: Ku-band transceiver replaced; materials science experiments retrieved
Ninety minutes into a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk, astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Luca Parmitano have completed their initial objectives.
After struggling a bit with a tight bolt, Cassidy replaced a Ku-band transceiver on the Z1 truss atop the International Space Station's central Unity module to restore redundancy to the lab's high-speed satellite communications network.
Parmitano, meanwhile, retrieved a pair of materials science space exposure experiments from a pallet on the right side of the station's solar power truss that will be returned to Earth later this year.
The astronauts now are turning their attention to moving the first of two large clamps that will be mounted on either side of the station's power truss to hold radiator panels in place if repairs or replacement are ever required.
Parmitano, the first Italian to walk in space, will be anchored to the end of the space station's robot arm for the work to install the radiator grapple beams, or RGBs. Astronaut Karen Nyberg will operate the arm from a robotics work station inside the Destiny lab module.
The astronauts have not encountered any significant problems and as of 09:30 a.m., they were running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
"Hey Chris, are you in a place where you can look down?" Parmitano radioed Cassidy as the station sailed 250 miles above Africa just south of Egypt.
"Yeah," Cassidy replied. "Not bad, huh?"
"It's amazing."
08:20 AM EDT, 07/09/13: Spacewalk begins
Floating in the International Space Station's Quest airlock module, astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Luca Parmitano switched their spacesuits to battery power at 8:02 a.m EDT (GMT-4), officially kicking off a planned six-and-a-half hour spacewalk.
The primary goals of the excursion are to replace a Ku-band communications transceiver; to install cabling needed by a Russian laboratory module scheduled for launch late this year; to retrieve a pair of space exposure materials science experiments; to mount a pair of radiator servicing attachment fittings; and to carry out routine maintenance.
 |
| Astronaut Luca Parmitano floats moves along the International Space Station's main power truss after retrieving a pair of materials science experiments that will be returned to Earth later this year. (Credit: NASA TV) |
This is the 170th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the fourth so far this year, the fifth for Cassidy and the first for Parmitano.
Both men plan to carry out another spacewalk next Tuesday to complete a long list of maintenance and assembly tasks.
"Why spacewalks now? The program has collected a number of tasks over the last couple of years," said flight director David Korth. "We like to wait to do EVAs because EVAs cost a lot of crew time and in the era of science and utilization, we try to minimize the perturbation to the overall (schedule).
"So the program has strategically placed a couple of EVAs this summer to, as we call it, burn down the list of tasks that require EVA."
Regardless of the strategy, Cassidy and Parmitano said they were eager to venture outside.
"I remember distinctly the feeling the first time I opened the hatch and looking down at the planet," Cassidy said in a NASA interview. "I remember thinking, wow, holy cow, I'm really here!
"It probably was only half a second that I kind of froze and was awestruck by the situation, but it felt like it was probably a minute or two that I was gawking. Fortunately I moved on and quickly got about my work before (then crewmate) Dave Wolf could reach behind and smack me on the head and say, come on, new guy, let’s go!"
This time around, the "new guy" is Parmitano. And during a pre-launch news briefing, he said he wasn't taking anything for granted.
"Any spacewalk is challenging. ... just because the environment is so different from anything we know here on Earth," he said. "Chris and I have been training together underwater, preparing for the tasks we will be doing. It's a special challenge.
"Previously during the shuttle times, EVAs were highly choreographed, so everything was planned and choreographed and trained over and over again until every step was perfected. On the station, we don't have that luxury to train as much. So we need to be a lot more flexible."
Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said it takes about 100 hours of crew time to prepare for a spacewalk, time that is lost to research.
As a result, "what you try to do is to get in as many EVAs as you can before you have to re-check the suits, flush the cooling lines, or any number of things we have to do before we do an EVA," he said. "So there's an efficiency to try to go outside a few times in a row. If you know you've got enough tasks to keep you busy, then you try to get as much of those done (as you can)."
Cassidy, a former Navy SEAL, was first out of the Quest hatch, followed by Parmitano. Cassidy's first job was to move up to the Z1 truss atop the central Unity module to replace a space-to-ground transmitter receiver controller, part of a Ku-band communications link, that failed last December.
The system is redundant and station communications are operating normally. But a second failure would have a major impact and mission managers want to restore full redundancy to protect against possible problems in the future.
"We're becoming very reliant on the Ku system," Suffredini said. "So making sure we have this redundant capability is important to us. We can live without it, for sure, but it would be a big impact if we lost it."
While Cassidy works on the transceiver swap out, Parmitano will move to the right side of the station's solar power truss to retrieve a pair of space exposure experiment pallets that will be returned to Earth later this year aboard a commercial SpaceX Dragon cargo ship.
Parmitano also plans to photograph the massive Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics detector mounted nearby to help engineers assess its condition after two years in the space environment.
Cassidy and Parmitano then will team up to install two radiator grapple bars, or RGBs, that were delivered to the station aboard a Dragon cargo ship last March. The RGBs are needed, one on each side of the power truss, to hold radiator cooling panels if a swap out is ever required.
Parmitano, anchored to the end of the space station's robot arm, will carry one RGB to the right side of the truss where he and Cassidy will bolt it in place. Astronaut Karen Nyberg, operating the arm from inside the station's Destiny laboratory module, then will move Parmitano back toward the port side of the truss.
Along the way, he plans to remove a failed camera assembly from the robot arm's mobile base so it can be returned to Earth for refurbishment.
While that work is underway, Cassidy will install power and data cables between the Russian segment of the station and the Unity compartment that will be needed by a new Russian multi-purpose laboratory module, or MLM, that will serve as a laboratory, docking port and airlock.
The new module, known as Nauka, will replace the current Pirs airlock compartment. It is scheduled for launch aboard an unmanned Proton booster late this year, but NASA insiders say the flight could slip to the spring timeframe because of assembly delays in Russia.
A Proton rocket carrying three navigation satellites veered out of control, broke apart and crashed seconds after launch July 2 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Protons currently are grounded pending an investigation, but the expected Nauka delay is unrelated to the launch failure. In any case, Protons should be back in service well before the MLM is ready for flight.
After installing the MLM wiring, Cassidy will take the failed camera assembly from Parmitano and carry it back to the Quest airlock. Parmitano, meanwhile, will carry the second RGB to the port side of the truss.
After helping Parmitano install the left-side RGB, Cassidy will begin routing so-called Y-bypass jumper cables on the Z1 truss that will enable flight controllers to quickly reconfigure electrical loads in the wake of failures that otherwise would require a spacewalk.
While Cassidy works to install the bypass jumpers -- the work will be completed during next week's spacewalk -- Nyberg will maneuver Parmitano back to the center of the power truss where he will get off the robot arm and stow the foot restraint that anchored him in place.
Cassidy and Parmitano will meet back up for the final major task of the day, installing a protective cover over the station's forward port where space shuttles once docked. After that, the duo will head back to the Quest airlock and call it a day.