ISS - Expedition 32 Mission patch.
September 5, 2012
Flight Engineers Suni Williams and Aki Hoshide completed their second spacewalk in less than a week at 1:34 p.m. EDT Wednesday. They completed the installation of a Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) that was hampered last week by a possible misalignment and damaged threads where a bolt must be placed. They also installed a camera on the International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2.
Image above: Spacewalkers Aki Hoshide and Suni Williams work outside the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV.
A post-spacewalk briefing at Johnson Space Center is scheduled for no earlier than 2:45 p.m.
Watch NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
MBSU cleaning tools that were used during installation. Credit: NASA TV
Flight Engineer Joe Acaba operated the Canadarm2 and monitored the spacewalkers from inside the International Space Station. Hoshide rode the Canadarm2 attached to a portable foot restraint to the MBSU worksite.
Wednesday’s spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 28 minutes.
Spacewalkers Aki Hoshide work outside the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV
View EVA briefing graphics from Aug. 14: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition32/eva_briefing_081412.html
Last week’s spacewalk lasted eight hours and 17 minutes making it the third longest in U.S. spaceflight history. It was originally scheduled for 6.5 hours before mission controllers and the astronauts struggled to install the MBSU.
Read more about the Aug. 30 spacewalk: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition32/exp32_eva2.html
View post-EVA briefing graphics from Aug. 30: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition32/post_eva_briefing_083012.html
Suni Williams surpassed Peggy Whitson during Wednesday’s excursion for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut. Whitson worked outside for 39 hours and 46 minutes over the course of six spacewalks. Williams has conducted six spacewalks for a total of 44 hours and 2 minutes.
Read more about Expedition 32: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition32/index.html
Expedition 32 Mission Summary (4.7 MB PDF): http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/668459main_exp32_summary.pdf
Images, Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV.
Greetings, Orbiter.ch
