NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 6 October 2019 – First of Five Power Upgrade Spacewalks This Month

Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan of NASA concluded their spacewalk at 2:40 p.m. EDT.
During the seven-hour and one minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts began the replacement of nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries on the far end of the station’s port truss.

Astronauts also were able to accomplish get-ahead tasks, including the removal of an additional nickel-hydrogen battery, originally scheduled for the second spacewalk.

These new batteries provide an improved power capacity for operations with a lighter mass and a smaller volume than the nickel-hydrogen batteries. On Oct. 11, Morgan and Koch are scheduled to venture outside again for another spacewalk to continue the battery replacements on the first of the two power channels for the station’s far port truss. The next spacewalks dedicated to the battery upgrades are scheduled on Oct. 16, 21 and 25.

After completion of the battery spacewalks, the second half of this sequence of spacewalks will focus on repairs to the space station’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Dates for those spacewalks still are being discussed, but they are expected to begin in November.

Space station crew members have conducted 219 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 57 days 6 hours and 27 minutes working outside the station.

On-Orbit Status Report

US P6 Battery Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #1: Today, FE-3 and FE-9 performed a 7 hr 1 min space walk out to the P6 truss. This was the first of five planned ExtraVehicular Activities (EVAs) that will upgrade the existing the P6 2B power channel nickel hydrogen (NiH2) batteries with new Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries. Integrated Electronics Assembly (IEA) Power Channel 2B NiH2 batteries 1-3 were released from the IEA; NiH2 batteries 1 & 2 were placed on External Pallet #8 (EP8) and NiH2 battery 3 was mounted to Adapter Plate A on the IEA. Two new Li-ion batteries were removed from EP8 and installed in the power channel 2B slot 1 & 3 locations.

Payloads

Light Ion Detector – ALTEA preparations: Today, the crew installed Seat Track Anchors that will mount and secure a critical piece of electrical hardware for the Light Ion Detector for ALTEA system (LIDAL) experiment to a seat track. The Light Ion Detector for ALTEA (Anomalous Long Term Effects on Astronauts) is a new payload arriving on NG-12.

Completed Task List Activities:
EPO PAO Skylight W40 (GMT 277)
EVA SAFER Practice (GMT 277)
HNDV Self Study (GMT 277)
P/TV EAV GoPro Chrg (GMT 278)

Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
P6 Battery EVA #56 support

Look Ahead:
Monday, 10/7 (GMT 280)

Payloads:
HRP Actiwatch, HRP Saliva Collection

Systems:
EVA Debrief, Crew Orientation, Suit Review, RGN drain and fill

Tuesday, 10/8 (GMT 281)

Payloads:
Astrobee, Veg-04 Pillow Prime, Spacecraft Atmospheric Monitor

Systems:
Robotics OBT for EVA, EMU suit water recharging, HTV Cargo Ops, EVA procedure reviews

Wednesday, 10/9 (GMT 282)

Payloads:
No payloads

Systems:
EVA Metox Regen

Today’s Planned Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Reminder for EVA In-Suit Light Exercise (ISLE)
HRF Generic Saliva Collection 10 Minutes
HRF Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval And Insertion Operations
HRF Generic Urine Collection Female
USOS Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Communication Configuration
External Wireless Instrumentation System Network Control Unit EVA Inhibit
ISS HAM Radio Power Down in Columbus
HRF Generic MELFI Sample Insertion Operations
ISS HAM Radio Power Down in Service Module
Monitoring shutter closure on SM windows 6, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 14.
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Purge
Crewlock Depress
Seat Track Anchor Locate
SSRMS EVA Support
EVA Worksite Preparation
SSRMS EVA Support
??? maintenance
Release Battery 1
Release Battery EP A
Release Battery 2
Perform Get-Aheads from 2B EVA 2
Release Battery 3
Release Battery EP B
HRF Generic Urine Collection Stow
Food Physiology MELFI Sample Transfer
EVA Crew Lock Ingress
External Wireless Instrumentation System (EWIS) Network Control Unit (NCU) Enable
Countermeasures System (CMS) VELO Exercise session
EVA Glove Photo Setup
Crewlock Pre Repress
Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) Post-EVA Activities
Photo/TV Extravehicular Activity (EVA) GoPro Downlink
EVA Glove Photo Downlink
Photo/TV Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Camera Disassembly
USOS Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Communication Deconfiguration