mercredi 17 août 2022

Russian Spacewalk Ends Early After Battery Power Issue

 







EVA - Extra Vehicular Activities patch.


August 17, 2022

Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev, both of Roscosmos, began a spacewalk at 9:53 a.m. EDT to continue outfitting the European robotic arm on the International Space Station’s Nauka laboratory by opening the hatch of the Poisk docking compartment airlock.

The duo is installing cameras on the European robotic arm, relocating an external control panel for the arm from one operating area to another, removing launch restraints near the two end effectors or “hands” of the arm, and testing a rigidizing mechanism on the arm that will be used to facilitate the grasping of payloads.


Image above: Flight Engineer Denis Matveev makes his way back inside the station after being instructed by Russian flight controllers to end the Aug. 17 spacewalk at the International Space Station due to a battery power issue on Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit. Image Credit: NASA TV.

Artemyev is wearing a Russian spacesuit with red stripes, while Matveev is wearing a Russian suit with blue stripes. This will be the seventh spacewalk in Artemyev’s career, and the third for Matveev. It will be the seventh spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 252nd spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev, both of Roscosmos, were instructed by Russian flight controllers to end the Aug. 17 spacewalk at the International Space Station due to a battery power issue on Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit.

During the spacewalk, the two cosmonauts completed the installation of two cameras on the European robotic arm prior to Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit showing abnormal battery readings. Mission Control-Moscow instructed Artemyev to return to the Poisk airlock to connect to the space station’s power supply. Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov, inside the station, is placing the European robotic arm in a safe configuration, and Matveev has just returned to the Poisk airlock. The duo was never in any danger during the operations.

Spacewalk Concludes After Abnormal Battery Readings

Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev, both of Roscosmos, concluded their spacewalk at 1:54 p.m. EDT after 4 hours and 1 minute.


Image above: Spacewalkers Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev are pictured during a spacewalk on April 28, 2022, monitoring the station’s new European robotic arm. Image Credit: NASA TV.

During the spacewalk, the two cosmonauts completed the installation of two cameras on the European robotic arm prior to Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit showing abnormal battery readings about 2 hours and 17 minutes into the extravehicular activity. Mission Control-Moscow instructed Artemeyev to return to the Poisk airlock to connect to the space station’s power supply. Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov, inside the station, placed the European robotic arm in a safe configuration, and Matveev safely returned to the Poisk airlock after completing some final clean-up activities outside of the International Space Station. The duo was never in any danger during the operations.

Additional spacewalks are planned to continue outfitting the European robotic arm and to activate Nauka’s airlock for future spacewalks. The work on the European robotic arm will be used to move spacewalkers and payloads around the Russian segment of the station.

This was the seventh spacewalk in Artemyev’s career, and the third for Matveev. It was the seventh spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 252nd spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Related links:

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

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

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

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch