ISS crew completes EVA 7
On the International Space Station (ISS) the fifth main mission crew (ISS-5) has implemented its first extravehicular activity. This is a regular – the seventh – egress into the outer space from the Russian Segment of the Station.
The objective of the egress is to perform work under the EVA 7 extravehicular activity program according to which it was planned to mount on the external surface of the Zvezda Russian Service Module six additional anti-debris panels, as well as to dismount the exposed board of the Kromka (Edge) experiment and to mount a new one instead.
During preparation for EVA 7 the crew and ground services in advance checked and prepared equipment and tools, communication systems and medical monitors, spacesuits and their detachable elements, studied the activities timeline, conducted training in spacesuits and talks with specialists.
The egress hatch of the Pirs (Piers) Russian Docking Compartment was opened at 13:25 Moscow time.
Operations in the outer space were performed by Valery Korzun, (Russian cosmonaut, ISS-5 commander)and Peggy Witson (American astronaut, ISS-5 onboard engineer). Russian cosmonaut Sergei Treschev (ISS-5 onboard engineer) stayed inside the station and tracked the work progress under the onboard documentation.
During spacesuits preparation for the extravehicular activity an off-nominal situation occurred which was connected with the non-availability of oxygen to be supplied from the main bottles. It was promptly removed by joint efforts of the Main Operational Management Group (GOGU) from the Mission Control Center near Moscow (MCC-M) and ISS-5 crew. However, its analysis and the performance of unscheduled actions lead to the loss of time and a partial reduction of activities program outside the station. Only anti-debris panels were mounted. During this operation one used a mast boom of the Pirs module which allowed the panels to be transferred from the storage site on the Unity module to the mounting area on the Zvezda module. The scheduled activity on the Kromka experiment is delayed to the next egress.
The hatch was closed at 17:48 Moscow time. The activities in the outer space lasted 4 hours 23 minutes.
According to the reports of the crew and GOGU that provided station flight control and monitoring from MCC-M (flight director – pilot-cosmonaut V.A. Soloviev), the crew feels well, ISS onboard systems state is compliant with a nominal one.
