Station Crew Begins Spacewalk

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/wor...xp10_eva1.html

Station Crew Begins Spacewalk

01.26.05


International Space Station crewmembers began their mission's first
spacewalk early Wednesday, opening the hatch of the Pirs Docking Compartment
at 2:43 a.m. EST and moving out to begin a series of jobs on the Station's
Zvezda Service Module.

Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov will install a
work platform, mount a robotics experiment, check vents on systems that help
control the Station's atmosphere and install a scientific experiment.


The spacewalk should last almost 5.5 hours. The spacewalkers are wearing
Russian Orlan spacesuits. Both suits have red stripes. Chiao's suit has a
U.S. flag on the right shoulder. This is Chiao's fifth spacewalk and
Sharipov's first.

Live television of the spacewalk was not available as the crew left the
airlock. Because of the orientation in space of the Station and the angle of
the sun, the antenna that sends down television got colder than its low
temperature limits. As a result, flight controllers decided late Tuesday to
"park" the antenna.

After opening the hatch and assembling equipment, Sharipov and Chiao move
from the Pirs back to about the middle of the Zvezda. There, they begin what
should be about a two-hour job, installation of a Universal Work Platform --
a kind of space work table -- and its base, along with associated wiring.

Next, they will install on the work platform the European commercial
experiment Rokviss (Robotic Components Verification on ISS). That experiment
explores the use of manipulator rotary joints, operated from inside Zvezda
or from the ground.

Rokviss is designed to study remote operation of such joints and the effects
of space on them. The German device could help lead to a new generation of
space robots.

Sharipov and Chiao will work together to relocate the Japanese MPAC&SEED
(Microparticle and Capture & Space Environment Exposure Device) experiment
to a new location on its rail-like mounting. That experiment exposes various
materials to space. At the old MPAC&SEED location they will install a
Rokviss antenna, then run and connect cables to link a transceiver with the
experiment and the antenna.

Still outside Zvezda, they will inspect and photograph gas vent nozzle
extenders including those of the Elektron and Vozdukh. Both the Elektron,
which divides water into its components, oxygen for the Station's interior
and hydrogen, which is vented overboard, and Vozdukh, a carbon-dioxide
scrubber, have experienced some glitches recently. The inspection should
help determine if the vents could be part of the problem.

During its planning, the spacewalk was lengthened by a little over an hour
so this task could be done. Once it is finished, Sharipov and Chiao will
move with their tool carrier back to Pirs.

Finally, on the outside of the Docking Compartment, they will install the
Russian Biorisk experiment. It looks at the impact of spaceflight on
microorganisms. Eventually information from the experiment could be used to
keep us from contaminating other planets with Earth's microorganisms, or
perhaps even to protect our own planet.

The spacewalkers are scheduled to re-enter the airlock and close the hatch
at a little before 8 a.m. EST.

This is the 57th spacewalk to assemble and maintain the Station. It is the
32nd spacewalk from the Station itself, and the 14th from Pirs.

A second spacewalk for Chiao and Sharipov is scheduled for March. During
that spacewalk, they will install navigational and communications equipment
for the arrival of the first Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo craft.

The ATV is an unpiloted cargo carrier similar in some ways to the Russian
Progress spacecraft, but it has more than double the cargo capacity of the
Progress. It is scheduled to make its first flight late this year.




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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info