vendredi 22 juillet 2022

Spacewalking Crew Sleeps In, Astronauts Work Science and Maintenance

 







ISS - Expedition 67 Mission patch.


July 22, 2022

Four Expedition 67 crew members slept in on Friday following a spacewalk the day before at the International Space Station. The other three orbital residents wrapped up the workweek researching a variety of space phenomena, unpacking a U.S. cargo ship, and maintaining orbital lab systems.

Commander and six-time spacewalker Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos led ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti on her first spacewalk on Thursday. The duo set up the European robotic arm for operations on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module during a spacewalk that lasted seven hours and five minutes. Ten nanosatellites were also deployed into Earth orbit for a radio technology experiment at the beginning of the excursion.


Image above: NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins are pictured inside the cupola, the International Space Station’s “window to the world,” after monitoring the successful rendezvous and docking of the SpaceX Dragon space freighter on its 25th Commercial Resupply Services mission on July 16, 2022. Image Credit: NASA.

Artemyev and Cristoforetti woke up late on Friday and spent the rest of the day cleaning their Russian Orlan spacesuits and inspecting spacewalk tools and tethers. Cosmonauts Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov also slept in on Friday having monitored the spacewalkers and assisted the duo in and out of their spacesuits the day before. The pair also helped out with the post-spacewalk activities returning the Poisk airlock to its normal configuration and re-opening the hatch to the ISS Progress 80 cargo craft.

The station’s three NASA Flight Engineers including Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Kjell Lindgren, worked a normal shift on Friday and wrapped up their workweek focusing on an array of science and maintenance operations.

International Space station (ISS). Animation Credit: ESA

Hines swapped fiber optic samples for a space manufacturing study, photographed samples for a cell-free protein production experiment, then activated the Astrobee robotic free-flyers ahead of a student robotics competition. Watkins continued unpacking cargo from inside the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship before stowing hardware for a water recycling experiment. Lindgren worked on payload cable connections then moved on to orbital plumbing tasks inside the station’s bathroom, also known as the Waste and Hygiene Compartment.

Related article:

Russian, European Spacewalkers Wrap Up Robotic Arm Excursion
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/07/russian-european-spacewalkers-wrap-up.html

Related links:

Expedition 67: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition67/index.html

Nauka multipurpose laboratory module: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/nauka/

Poisk airlock: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/poisk-mini-research-module-2

Space manufacturing study: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8214

Cell-free protein production experiment: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8703

Astrobee: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1891

Water recycling experiment: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8369

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Heidi Lavelle.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch