ISS - Expedition 54 Mission patch / EVA - Extra Vehicular Activities patch.
January 23, 2018
Image above: File photo from a spacewalk last year repairing the space station's robotic arm. Image Credit: NASA.
Expedition 54 Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle of NASA completed the first spacewalk this year at 2:13 p.m. EST, lasting 7 hours, 24 minutes. The two astronauts replaced a Latching End Effector (LEE) on the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2.
Space Station Crew Walks in Space to Conduct Robotics Upgrades
There are two redundant end effectors on each end of the arm used to grapple visiting vehicles and components during a variety of operational activities. The spacewalk was the 206th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the third in Vande Hei’s career and the first for Tingle. Vande Hei will venture outside the station again Jan. 29 with Flight Engineer Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to stow a spare latching end effector removed from the robotic arm last October on to the station’s mobile base system rail car for future use.
Image above: Astronaut Joe Acaba (left) assists astronaut Scott Tingle during a fit check in his U.S. spacesuit. Image Credit: NASA.
Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 53 days, 13 hours, and 49 minutes working outside the station in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory.
Related links:
station’s mobile base system: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/mss.html
Expedition 54: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition54/index.html
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Video (NASA TV), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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