Expedition Crew 5 performs their second egress into space
The Expedition Crew 5 (ISS-5) of the International Space Station (ISS) performed their second egress into space. This is the eighth EVA of the ISS crews from the Russian Segment from the beginning of its operation.
The EVA objective is to perform operations under the extravehicular activities (EVA 8) program including the previous EVA deferred operations to release and install a new board with exposed samples for Kromka experiment.
During EVA 8 preparation activities started on August the 20th the crew and ground services prepared the Orlan-M spacesuit, equipment, tools, communication and medical parameters monitoring systems for operation, performed necessary training and consultations with specialists.
The egress hatch of the Russian docking compartment-module Pirs was opened at 9:28 Moscow summer time.
Space operations were performed by the Russian cosmonauts Valery Korzun (ISS 5 commander) and Sergey Treshchev (ISS 5 flight engineer). American astronaut Peggy Whitson (ISS 5 flight engineer) stayed inside the Station and controlled TV cameras installed on the Canadian manipulator of the U.S. Segment.
Upon completion of the scheduled EVA activities, which were performed within 5 hours 20 minutes, having closed the egress hatch at 14:48 the cosmonauts came back to module Pirs.
In the course of EVA S. Korzun and S. Treshchev performed operations on installation of restraining pallet and guides on the Functional Cargo Module Zarya intended for passing a tether though them, which are assumed to be used in the next spacewalks with cosmonauts translating along the external surface of the station. They also deinstalled and reinstalled the Japanese MPAC&SEED scientific hardware panels on the external surface of the working compartment of the Russian Service Module Zvezda, replaced the panels with scientific hardware available on the module instrument compartment used in the Kromka experiment, installed two radio amateur communication antennas with connection cables on the module surface. The cosmonauts examined the micrometeorite monitoring system sensor located on the surface of the module Zvezda. In so doing, they conducted photo and video imagery of the activity results.
The EVA program operations were performed in the Russian ground site coverage. Outside this coverage the data exchange between the ISS and Moscow Mission Control Center (MCC-M) was performed through the U.S. facilities.
According to the reports of the crew and LOCT that provides the Russian Segment flight control and monitoring from MCC-M, the crew feels well, and the ISS onboard systems operate normally.
The ISS of about 153.2 tons currently operates consisting of Functional Cargo Module Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, docking compartment-module Pirs, logistics vehicle Progress M-46, manned spacecraft Soyuz-TM-34, U.S. modules Unity and Destiny, airlock Kvest.
The ISS flies in orbit with the following parameters: maximum altitude of 410.5 and minimum altitude of 381.3 km, period of revolution about the Earth of 92.3 min.
Click on image to enlarge