Space Station Astronauts Take Spacewalk

Space Station Astronauts Take Spacewalk

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../space_station

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Their mission nearing an end, the two space station
astronauts installed antennas and released a baby Sputnik during a spacewalk
Monday amid heightened safety procedures and multiple breakdowns.


Commander Leroy Chiao and his Russian crewmate, Salizhan Sharipov, left the
international space station empty for the second time in just a couple
months, floating outside to perform the 220-mile-high maintenance work.

NASA (news - web sites) and the Russian Space Agency instituted extra safety
measures to avoid a repeat of the problem that occurred during the men's
spacewalk in January. Chiao got too close to firing thrusters during that
first outing because of miscommunication, and so flight controllers put
unambiguous rules in place for Monday's outing.

"Please don't rush things," Mission Control urged the men.
Complicating the spacewalk this time was a seriously hampered stabilization
system.
Two weeks ago, a circuit breaker popped open and cut power to one of the
gyroscopes needed to keep the space station stable and pointed in the right
direction. The breakdown left the station running on only two gyroscopes,
the bare minimum.

Flight controllers expected the two functioning gyroscopes to become
overloaded, but said the space station would be fine drifting around Earth
and pitching over, almost like a slow-motion cartwheel, for up to two
orbits.

Engineers have yet to identify the source of the mysterious force that tilts
the space station during spacewalks and causes the American-made gyroscopes
to lose steering control. Each time, Russian thrusters have to take over,
potentially exposing the crew to toxic fuel.

Chiao and Sharipov - marking their 165th day in orbit - promptly plugged in
three antennas for a new type of cargo carrier due to fly next year. They
also carried out a 1-foot-long, 11-pound satellite called Nanosputnik,
designed for experimental maneuvering by ground controllers.

Sharipov let go of Nanosputnik on the count of two as Chiao photographed the
event. "Off it goes," Sharipov said as the satellite floated away with a
spin. Minutes earlier, he commented: "Everything is like in the movies, and
it's hard to believe."

The spacewalkers ignored the failed circuit breaker; visiting shuttle
astronauts will tackle that job in two more months.

The two station residents have spent the past several weeks dealing with an
assortment of breakdowns, including an oxygen generator that still isn't
working. Over the weekend, they replaced a pump panel that is part of a
critical cooling system.

A fresh two-man crew will relieve them next month.

The space station has been home to only two astronauts at a time since 2003,
one fewer than usual because of the grounding of the shuttle fleet. The
cutback means no one is inside overseeing station systems during spacewalks.

NASA hopes to launch Discovery to the space station in mid-May on the first
shuttle flight since the Columbia tragedy. A milestone was set for later in
the day with Discovery's much-delayed move from the hangar into the Vehicle
Assembly Building for hookup to its booster rockets and redesigned external
fuel tank.

Foam from the tank led to Columbia's loss.

--
--------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:21:58 +0200, Jacques van Oene
wrote:

Space Station Astronauts Take Spacewalk


Not a lot of discussion of this, but it seems to have gone well. I've
seen an article on USA Today's site and Yahoo had a picture on their
newsphotos page, but I guess I'll have to look at NASA's site to find much.

/dps

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