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On Friday, March 5, two astronauts finally set up delicate solar bar installations outside the International Space Station, which blocked a previous group of space walkers days before.
NASA Expedition 64 astronauts Kate Rubins (wearing a red striped spacesuit) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Soichi Noguchi) spent 6 hours and 56 minutes working in the vacuum of space , mostly swaying unusually far from the core of the International Space Station (ISS).
They worked at a remote location on the port side of the station to continue upgrading the aging solar panels 4B and 2B. The panels were first installed during the STS-97 space shuttle mission in 2007 and have naturally degraded over time.
Related: The International Space Station inside and out (infographic)
NASA’s goal is to eventually add a new set of Boeing-made panels above each of the station’s eight bays to increase the station’s current power levels by 20% to 30%. These solar panels will be shipped on a future SpaceX Dragon cargo mission, but first the astronauts had to set up the support brackets.
The astronauts switched to the spacesuit battery at 6:37 a.m. EST (11:37 GMT) – officially starting the spacewalk – and exited the US Quest airlock. From there, the space walkers made a sharp left turn and moved hand in hand along the P6 structure.
“We’ll go slowly,” Noguchi said happily after NASA gave permission to venture far to the port side of the station. It was a long journey, which took the astronauts several minutes. “Keep my straps free,” Noguchi reported as he crept carefully along the farm, which is attached to the space station with safety lines.
There they have continued to work since the spacewalk last Sunday (February 28), by Rubins and NASA astronaut Victor Glover. Rubins struggled to put herself and a portable articulated footrest (APFR) in the correct position to watch the first job site, the 4B solar panel.
“I am now in the ideal body position for this APFR,” she told mission control.
Rubins and Francisco Rubio, the “intravehicular crew member” in Houston sending Mission Control instructions, compared his efforts to working in “the pool”. This pool is the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, a swimming facility where astronauts practice spacewalks before flight.
“Unfortunately I think we get the easiest positions in the pool,” Mission Control’s Rubio joked.
“It’s not that bad,” joked Rubins, working in microgravity long before his fourth spacewalk.
A glitch arose almost immediately for Rubins, as she worked to bolt the already assembled “upper triangle” spacers from a modification kit in place, to the solar panel 4B. Three of the four bolts moved smoothly with his pistol grip tool – sort of a modified space drill – but the fourth didn’t cooperate. Rubins moved and moved the bolt and said she couldn’t see it attaching properly.
Rubio consulted with his colleagues in the field to see what to do next, and Mission Control’s consensus seemed to be that the last bolt wasn’t needed after all. “We are good with three of the four bolts [secured], so we’re going to push and call it a good install, ”he said.
Rubins’ next task was to retire from the footrest to receive more struts from Noguchi. It took some effort to withdraw from its fixed location. “And I’m out of here,” she said happily after several minutes of extra effort.
The astronauts had less trouble fitting the other spacers on 4B, and regularly thanked each other for keeping track of all the parts. Then they moved to a second job site to troubleshoot a sticky bolt on 2B’s die modification kit that delayed some of its scheduled installation work by almost a week.
Proceeding carefully, the mission control and astronauts drove in the required bolts and finally secured all the spacers from the 2B mod kit to the ISS, finishing the job from Sunday. The only minor problem at work was when Rubins spotted a “point” abrasion on his right glove. No leak was detected, but Rubins asked him to stay close to his colleague for the remainder of the spacewalk – just in case.
Related: What it’s like to work in space with EVA gloves
As the six-hour mark for a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk approached, NASA examined the remaining oxygen and water levels in the spacesuits to assess whether to proceed. to “moving forward” tasks that space walkers could pursue if they had the time. The agency ultimately decided not to go ahead and take on the additional duties of a future space walking team. These non-urgent tasks included the cabling of the European Space Agency’s new Bartolomeo external platform for science experiments, as well as the removal and replacement of a system receiving video from space walkers.
With the main work of the spacewalk complete, Noguchi and Rubins cleared the 2B network work site, made the long trip back to the core of the station along the P6 beam, and then ascended to inside the Quest airlock for repressurization. The spacewalk ended at 1:33 p.m. EST (6:33 p.m. GMT).
Friday’s spacewalk was the 236th spacewalk in support of the space station assembly; it was the fourth for Rubins and Noguchi, with Noguchi breaking the record for most Japanese spacewalks. Sunday’s spacewalk saw Noguchi and Akihiko Hoshide each tied for the Japanese record, with three spacewalks each, according to remarks on NASA Television.
The highest number of spacewalks for a woman is seven, a record shared between NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Sunita Williams; Whitson has almost three hours more cumulative “away” time than Williams, with a total of 53 hours and 22 minutes on extra-vehicular activity.
The ground support team included Rubio, capcom and record-breaking NASA astronaut Christina Koch, flight director Chris Edelen and senior spacewalk officer Art Thomason. NASA Expedition 64 astronauts Glover and Mike Hopkins (the leader) assisted the astronauts from inside the space station.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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