Crew Installs Antennas In ISS EVA
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By Frank Morring, Jr.
International Space Station (ISS) Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike Barratt overcame concerns about carbon dioxide levels in their Russian Orlan spacesuits to install two sets of antennas for an upcoming automated docking in a four-hour, 54-minute spacewalk early June 5.
The pair went outside about an hour late after Mission Control Center-Moscow expressed concerns about the CO2 levels in their suits, which were being used for the first time. Barratt, a NASA flight surgeon, and Padalka took extra pains to monitor their physical condition during the extravehicular activity (EVA), and were able to catch up the lost time and return to the Pirs airlock on schedule.
Once outside they installed two antenna sets for the KURS automatic docking system that will bring Russia's Mini Research Module-2 (MRM-2) to a berth on the Zvezda service module in November following its launch on a Proton rocket. One array will monitor the MRM-2's range, rate of approach and roll, and the other will keep tabs on its attitude.
Padalka, making his seventh spacewalk, and Barratt, making his first, moved quickly through the assembly tasks, bolting the arrays to the Zvezda and routing cables down the sides of the pressurized module that forms the centerpiece of the station's Russian section.
Once the work was finished Padalka cranked Barratt out about 50 feet on the Strella crane so he could photo-document the new configuration.
The pair returned to the Pirs airlock at 8:56 a.m. EDT, bringing to a close the 124th station EVA. To date spacewalkers have spent 779 hours, 54 minutes outside to assemble and maintain the orbiting laboratory, according to NASA.
Padalka and Barratt will don their spacesuits a second time on June 10, but they will not go outside. Instead, they will depressurize part of the Russian section to move a docking cone to the zenith hatch on Zvezda so it can accommodate the MRM-2. That activity is expected to take less than an hour.
ISS spacewalk photo: NASA
