Russian Spacewalk to Outfit Space Station's Exterior

Russian Spacewalk to Outfit Space Station's Exterior

International Space Station Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko will install one experiment and retrieve another on July 15 during their second spacewalk in less than a week.

They also will continue to outfit the station's exterior, including the installation of a docking target on the Zvezda service module. It will help with the docking of a Russian mini research module on the space-facing side of Zvezda. That module will be launched next year.

The spacewalk, in Russian Orlan suits from the Pirs docking compartment, is scheduled to begin about 1:10 p.m. EDT. It is expected to last about 5.5 hours.

Volkov, the lead spacewalker or EV1, will wear the suit with red stripes. Kononenko, EV2, will wear the blue-striped suit.

After leaving Pirs and setting up, the first task is the docking target. Kononenko will use the boom of the Strela hand-powered crane, operated by Volkov, to move to the area at the front of Zvezda, the transfer compartment, to install the docking target.

Next they'll retract Strela and use an installed spacewalkers' ladder to move to the small-diameter section of Zvezda. There they will inspect some bolt holes to be used to place an antenna adapter, part of the Kurs automated docking system. A Kurs antenna to be installed there later will be used for the first time next year.

After moving back to Strela, they'll move a foot restraint from its boom to the exterior of Zvezda. They'll return to Pirs, get the Vsplesk experiment and move with it to the large-diameter section of Zvezda.

There they'll install the experiment, which monitors seismic effects using high-energy particle streams in the near-Earth environment. Then they'll install cabling.

Finally, they'll move to the Biorisk experiment, installed by Expedition 15 spacewalkers on Zvezda. The experiment studies the effects of the space environment on microorganisms.

With it and a tool carrier they'll move down the spacewalkers' ladder and to Pirs. The closing of its hatch marks the official end of the spacewalk.

As he did last week, Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff will remain in the Soyuz during the spacewalk. That is part of contingency preparations for the unlikely event the Pirs airlock cannot be repressurized.

The July 10 spacewalk by Volkov and Kononenko focused on inspection of their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft and retrieval of an explosive bolt, one of 10 that help separate the spacecraft's return module from its propulsion module. The bolt will be returned to Earth for examination.

Failure of those two modules to separate on time during re-entry on the most recent two Soyuz returns resulted in ballistic entries. Those steeper-than-normal entries, while safe, resulted in high-G rides for Soyuz occupants and landings several hundred miles short of the planned area.

Bye for now,
Nick
Spaceman.

SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store