Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Spacewalk clears the way for Russian cargo ship docking

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 22, 2015 at 9:43:41 AM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Spacewalk clears the way for Russian cargo ship docking

By William Harwood CBS News December 21, 2015, 8:53 AM
Spacewalk clears the way for Russian cargo ship docking
Space station commander Scott Kelly, bottom left, and Tim Kopra, upper left, worked outside the lab complex Monday to free up a stalled robot arm transporter. The work was successful, the transporter was moved to an anchor point and locked in place as required for the arrival of a Russian Progress cargo ship Wednesday. NASA TV
Space station commander Scott Kelly and newly-arrived flight engineer Tim Kopra ventured outside the lab complex Monday and freed up a stalled robot arm-carrying transporter so it could be safely moved to a nearby anchor point and locked down, clearing the way for a Russian Progress supply ship to dock Wednesday.
The quickly-planned-and-executed spacewalk began when Kelly and Kopra, floating in the Quest airlock compartment, switched their spacesuits to battery power at 7:45 a.m. EST (GMT-5), less than four hours after the Progress MS/62P cargo ship blasted off from Kazakhstan to kick off a two-day rendezvous with the station.
Loaded with 5,753 pounds of propellant, supplies and equipment, the Progress is expected to dock at the space station's Russian Pirs module around 5:31 a.m. Wednesday.
Last week, NASA flight controllers uplinked commands to move the robot arm's mobile transporter, or MT, from work site 4 to work site 2 on the forward face of the station's long power truss. But after moving just four inches or so along its rails, the MT stalled and refused to budge.
The MT must be locked down when the Progress docks at the Pirs module to avoid possible damage from vibrations transmitted through the station's structure. But the MT can only be locked down at one of the work sites on the power truss.
The mobile transporter, or MT, is used to move the space station's robot arm to different work sites along the lab's main power truss. The transporter stalled during a move last week after the brakes on an attached cart somehow engaged. During a spacewalk Monday, the brakes were released and the transporter was repositioned at work site 4 and locked in place near the center of the station's power truss.
NASA
Engineers suspected the brakes on a crew equipment and translation aid -- CETA -- cart attached to the transporter somehow engaged before the attempted move from work site 4 to work site 2. During a spacewalk Nov. 6, Kelly tied down a brake handle on the starboard CETA cart to minimize potential interference and it's possible the handle somehow slipped out of the unlocked position.
During an initial inspection Monday, Kelly reported the starboard CETA cart refused to budge when he attempted to rock it back and forth. Then he disengaged the cart's brake.
"It's moving now," he reported. "I hit it twice, I think that fixed it. That was pretty easy."
"OK, Scott, so we just want to verify, when you said movement, you're feeling movement in the CETA cart itself?" asked astronaut Mike Hopkins in mission control.
"Yeah. As I did that, it started moving forward and aft," Kelly replied.
A few minutes later, after making sure both CETA carts were free on the mobile transporter's rails, a flight controller in Houston uplinked commands to move the MT back to work site 4.
"I see motion," Kelly reported as the MT inched along.
Kelly and Kopra working near the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship, visible in the background.
NASA TV
A few moments after that, Hopkins reported: "Good news, it appears to have reached the work site center." That cleared the way for additional commanding to lock the mechanism in place, completing the primary objective of the spacewalk.
Kelly and Kopra then carried out a few "get-ahead" tasks. Kopra opened up access doors to facilitate replacement of avionics boxes as needed in the central S0 truss segment and laid out an ethernet cable needed by a future Russian laboratory module. Kelly continued work started earlier this year to route power cables needed for a new docking mechanism that will be installed next year.
"Make sure you look at the Earth," Kelly advised Kopra at one point.
"Yeah. Good point," Kopra replied as the space station approached Europe, 253 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.
After completing the get-ahead tasks, both men returned to the Quest airlock. Repressurization began at 11:01 a.m., bringing NASA EVA-34 to an end at the three-hour 16-minute mark.
"I just want to say thank you to everybody up there, great job," Hopkins radioed. "You turned around an EVA in three days, so well done. There are a lot of smiling faces down here."
"Hey, thanks to you guys," Kelly replied. "This is a team effort. We're just the guys who are really just lucky enough to be going out here. It takes all of us to get this job done. So we much appreciate your help."
This was the 191st spacewalk since station assembly began in 1998, the seventh so far this year, the third for Kelly and the second for Kopra, who arrived at the station last week aboard the Soyuz TMA-19M ferry craft.
Total station EVA time by 122 astronauts and cosmonauts representing nine nations now stands at 1,195 hours and 20 minutes, or 49.8 days.
The Progress MS/62P cargo ship, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:44:39 a.m., is the first in a new series of spacecraft featuring an upgraded command and telemetry system, new digital video gear for proximity operations and additional redundancy in a manual control backup system.
The Progress MS/62P cargo ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Monday to kick off a two-day flight to the International Space Station.
NASA TV
MS-series upgrades tested on previous flights include an improved KURS rendezvous radar, an upgraded satellite navigation system, redundant motors in the docking mechanism, improved shielding against micrometeoroids and a new LED spotlight.
The Russians originally planned to launch the first MS-series Progress earlier and to implement the upgrades in a piloted Soyuz spacecraft in March. But the April 28 loss of a Progress due to a third stage malfunction delayed implementation and triggered downstream adjustments to the Russian launch schedule.
The Russians now plan to launch two MS-series Progress supply ships -- the second is scheduled for launch March 31 -- to flight test the new upgrades with the first Soyuz MS taking off on June 21. On board will be spacecraft commander Anatoly Ivanishin, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins.
The crew that originally planned to launch aboard the first MS-series Soyuz in March -- Oleg Skripochka, Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams -- was switched to an older Soyuz, the TMA-20M.
The Progress MS/62P spacecraft launched Monday is the tenth space station supply ship launched this year. The April Progress failure and the June loss of a SpaceX Dragon cargo craft cut into the station's on-board reserves, but four cargo ships in a row have reached the outpost since then and the fifth is now on the way.
The MS/62P supply ship is carrying 1,918 pounds of propellant, 105 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,804 pounds of equipment, crew supplies and spare parts.

© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Spacewalking astronauts fix station's stuck rail car
By Irene Klotz

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View photo
NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra work to move a stalled robotic transporter on the International …
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Two U.S. astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Monday in a hastily planned spacewalk to move a stuck rail car before a Russian cargo ship reaches the outpost on Wednesday, NASA said.
Station commander Scott Kelly and newly arrived flight engineer Timothy Kopra were due to spend about 3.5 hours on an abbreviated spacewalk to latch the stalled car into a parking spot along the station's exterior truss.
The car serves as a mobile base for a Canadian-built robotic crane to move rails outside the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that files about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.
The rail car jammed about 4 inches (10 cm) short of its intended latching point last Wednesday, blocked by a crew equipment cart that was left with its brake on.
Kelly and Kopra fixed the stuck rail car in 15 minutes, leaving them time to tackle work to prepare the station for new modules, said mission commentator Rob Navias from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Russia, one of 15 nations that own and operate the station, plans to launch a new research laboratory, while the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration is preparing to install docking ports for new commercial space taxis that are slated to begin flying in 2017.
NASA usually spends months planning spacewalks, but the one that began shortly before 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) was just arranged over the weekend.
Kopra arrived at the station six days ago with Britain's first professional astronaut, Timothy Peake, and Russia's Yuri Malenchenko. Kopra and Kelly released the brake handle during the spacewalk, freeing up the mobile transporter, Navias said.
A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress cargo ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:44 a.m. EST (0844 GMT) and is due to reach the station on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Lisa Von Ahn)

Copyright © 2015 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Spacewalk repair needs only two whacks
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Miami (AFP) - Two solid whacks to a stuck brake handle was all it took for a spacewalking American astronaut to fix a stalled rail car outside the International Space Station, NASA said Monday.
"That was pretty easy," Commander Scott Kelly said, according to a live broadcast of the spacewalk on NASA television, after he hit the stuck brake handle and got the car moving again.
Kelly and his fellow spacewalker, US flight engineer Tim Kopra, made swift work of the job and accomplished their main mission in less than an hour.
The mobile transporter rail car carries the robotic arm from one location to another on the outside of the orbiting lab.
It was fully latched back into place at 8:35 am (1335 GMT), just 50 minutes after the spacewalk began.
The rail car's brake was believed to have become stuck unexpectedly last week after it moved about four inches (10 centimeters) from its starting point.
View gallery

Tim Kopra takes a space walk outside the International Space Station on December 21, 2015 (AFP Photo …
The car needed to be latched in place so as not to interfere with the arrival of the Russian Progress supply ship on Wednesday.
After Kelly and Kopra moved the rail car, they routed cables to prepare for a new docking adapter for commercial cargo ships.
The shorter-than-usual spacewalk ended after three hours and 16 minutes, about half the duration of a regular outing.
Kelly is spending a year in space, along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, in order to study the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body and mind.
The duo will return to Earth in March.
Monday's spacewalk was Kelly's third for his career, and was Kopra's second.
It was the 191st spacewalk in the history of building and maintaining the ISS.

Copyright © 2015 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.

Spacewalking Astronauts Rescue Stuck Space Station Railcar
by Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer | December 21, 2015 11:32am ET

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra completed a spacewalk today (Dec. 21), releasing a stuck railcar and moving it to a workstation, where it could be locked down. Here, Kopra works near the recently arrived Cygnus supply craft (top).
Credit: NASA View full size image
Two astronauts took a surprise spacewalk outside the International Space Station this morning (Dec. 21) to unstick a vital piece of equipment and lock it into place before a resupply spacecraft arrives.
The station's mobile transporter railcar got stuck just 4 inches (10 centimeters) from where it could be safely latched down Wednesday night (Dec. 16). The railcar must be secured before the Progress resupply spacecraft, which launched early this morning, arrives at the station, bringing 2.8 tons (2.5 metric tons) of food and supplies. The railcar acts as the home base of the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm.
The spacewalk was put together in "just a few days," after the railcar got stuck, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during NASA's live broadcast of the operation. [Gallery: Most Memorable Spacewalks of History]
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly commanded the spacewalk, his third, and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra joined him outside. Kopra arrived at the space station less than a week ago; this is the second spacewalk of his career. British astronaut Tim Peake, who also recently arrived, assisted the astronauts in getting out and back into the station. (He also helped by taking a photo of Kelly through the windows of the space station's cupola.)
After an early start at 7:45 a.m. EST (1245 GMT), the astronauts were able to free the railcar — they released a stuck brake handle — and complete the task in just 35 minutes before moving on to several "get-ahead" tasks that will be useful for future activity on the station. Once the railcar was freed, it could be remotely directed those last few inches to lock into place.
.@StationCDRKelly & @Astro_Tim move along after transporter work. The #Cygnus spacecraft is right behind the duo. https://t.co/17fjdVOwUG
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) December 21, 2015
For the remainder of the spacewalk, the duo tackled several tasks, including rerouting an Ethernet cable for use in a future Russian science module and putting down cables for future international docking adaptors that will let commercial spacecraft attach to the station.
The tasks proceeded quickly over the course of the spacewalk, which lasted just 3 hours and 16 minutes, but the duo still had time to admire the view:
"How's the Earth look?" astronaut Mike Hopkins asked the pair from Ground Control in Houston.
"Beautiful — it's dark," they responded. "Taking pictures."
"You should be passing over India right now," Hopkins added.
After the spacewalk ended, spokesman Navias deemed the process "quickly planned and executed to perfection."
.@Astro_TimPeake photographs condition of spacesuits with the spacewalkers back inside @Space_Station. https://t.co/bffUgcOYNF
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) December 21, 2015
The Progress 62 supply craft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this morning at 3:44 a.m. EST (0844 GMT) and is en route to the station; it will rendezvous with the station autonomously two days from now. The craft brings supplies and research tools for the crewmembers currently aboard the station: Kelly, Kopra and Peake, as well as cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, who arrived last Tuesday (Dec. 15) with Kopra and Peake; cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, who has been on board for nine months with Kelly as part of a yearlong space mission; and cosmonaut Sergey Volkov.
Another spacewalk is planned for mid-January to replace a voltage regulator that failed several weeks ago, taking down one of the station's eight power channels, NASA officials said. Preparations for that spacewalk will begin tomorrow.

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