Two astronauts replace ISS camera and docking aid on 6th-ever all-female spacewalk (video)
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Two astronauts replaced a spacecraft docking aid and a video camera during a successful spacewalk outside of the International Space Station on Tuesday (Sept. 1).
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot got through most of the tasks set out for them even in light of Adenot’s spacesuit developing a mobility issue late in the extravehicular activity (EVA), which lasted six hours and 49 minutes.
After beginning the spacewalk from the U.S. Quest airlock at 8:40 a.m. EDT (1240 GMT), Meir and Adenot set about the first and most important activity of the outing: replacing the planar deflector on the forward port of the station’s Harmony Node 2. The retroreflector is used to support navigation during rendezvous and docking operations by visiting spacecraft. The older reflector that they replaced had become coated in thruster residue from earlier spacecraft arrivals and departures.
They also replaced the Camera Port 3 (CP3) high-definition (HD) camera on the station’s truss.
“And it’s off!” reported Meir after freeing the spent camera assembly that was swapped out for spare. Her words were met by applause in Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“That worked, great!” she said.
From there, Adenot headed off to continue an ongoing scientific study by swabbing areas on the exterior of the airlock and her gloves for possible microorganisms. Meir, meanwhile, rode one end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm to a site near the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), torquing 46 bolts in preparation for future maintenance of the particle physics detector.
Meir also relocated power and thermal jumper cables and an articulating portable foot restraint for use on a later spacewalk.
There were some other tasks planned, time permitting, but toward the end of the EVA, Adenot reported losing mobility in her left shoulder joint. Erring on the side of caution, Mission Control called for Adenot to wait where she was until Meir could follow her back to the airlock.
Once there, Meir was able to unzip a portion of Adenot’s extravehicular mobility unit’s (EMU’s) upper arm assembly to inspect what was happening. In doing so, she freed the kink that had limited Adenot’s motion.
“I think it was where the cable got caught in between the shoulder MLI [multi-layer insulation] and the rotation [joint]. I don’t think it was held up by anything but some friction,” said Meir.
The two Expedition 75 crewmates then proceeded back into the airlock to complete the EVA at 4:29 p.m (2029 GMT).
Tuesday’s spacewalk was Meir’s seventh and Adenot’s third. Meir, who has a total of 49 hours and 22 minutes on EVA, now ranks third among all women astronauts at NASA for total number of spacewalks. She trails only Peggy Whitson with 10 and Suni Williams at 9.
Adenot now has spent 19 hours and 42 minutes working in the vacuum of space.
This spacewalk was the 284th supporting the International Space Station‘s assembly, maintenance and upgrades. It was the seventh spacewalk this year, fifth EVA for Expedition 75 and the sixth all-female spacewalk in history.
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