The
International Space Station (ISS) has a new camera eye and a once-more complete
oxygen generator system after an extra-long spacewalk by its two-astronaut crew.
ISS Expedition
13 commander Pavel
Vinogradov and flight engineer Jeffrey
Williams spent six hours and 31 minutes making repairs and collecting
experiments along the space station's exterior. Their excursion lasted almost
an hour longer than
planned after the astronauts fell behind in their work schedule.
But the
extra time, 31 minutes more than typical spacewalks in Russian-built Orlan
spacesuits, allowed the astronauts to replace a faulty camera on the station's
Mobile Base System railcar. The task was a late addition to the spacewalk lineup
and was almost cancelled due to today's time crunch.
Vinogradov
and Williams began their extended spacewalk at 6:48 p.m. EDT (2248 GMT), when
they stepped outside the station's Russian-built Pirs docking compartment while
flying 220 miles over Southern Asia.
"Here I am
hanging by a tether by the Pacific Ocean," Vinogradov said during the
spacewalk. "It's like a fairy tale."
The
Expedition 13 crew made crucial repairs to several station systems, but at some
loss.
During the
spacewalk, Vinogradov watched a foot restraint adapter, which had previously
linked him to the station's Strela crane, drift off into space.
"That's
bad," Vinogradov said as the cylindrical adapter flew beyond the space
station's solar arrays.
But NASA
officials said the errant adapter is believed to have drifted out of the space
station's orbital plane and will not pose a debris risk to the ISS at this
time.
Major
repairs
The
Expedition 13 crew made two key ISS repairs during today's spacewalk.
Vinogradov
replaced a clogged vent nozzle used to dump excess hydrogen overboard by the
space station's Elektron
oxygen generator - the primary oxygen producer aboard the orbital
laboratory.
The
Elektron device separates water into oxygen and hydrogen through electrolysis,
but has had a finicky track record since an electrolyte
leak contaminated its hydrogen vent last year. The leak rendered the vent
unusable, and forced engineers to reroute the Elektron's hydrogen waste through
an alternate route that led to routine downtime for the generator.
NASA
spokesperson Rob Navias said that, with its hydrogen vent system once again
functional, the Elektron oxygen generator will be reactivated on Monday.
Vinogradov and Williams
also replaced a broken video camera that provides key views from the space
station's railcar-like Mobile Base System, which is used to haul the outpost's
robotic arm along its main truss segment.
The camera will provide a
key backup to other views during STS-115, NASA's next shuttle flight to fly
after the planned July
launch of STS-121, when spacewalking astronauts will install new solar
arrays outside the ISS, the space agency said.
Other tasks
In other tasks, Williams retrieved
an exposure experiment and the last of three Russian Biorisk containers
designed to study microorganisms that have been subjected to the weightlessness
of space. Two other Biorisk canisters were recovered in previous spacewalks.
Vinogradov collected a
metal plate dubbed Kromka, which ISS engineers will use to study the effect of
thruster firings on the space station structure.
He also photographed a
navigation antenna on the aft end of the station's Zvezda service module, which
may be interfering with a nearby thruster, and repositioned a similar antenna
to avoid signal disruption from an errant cable. The antennas will help a
future European cargo ship make unmanned deliveries to the ISS.
The busy spacewalk is the
first of two planned spacewalks for the Expedition 13 crew.
Williams is expected to don
a U.S. spacesuit and work outside the ISS later this summer with European
astronaut Thomas Reiter, who is slated to join the Expedition 13 crew when the
space shuttle Discovery visits the station in July.
The
spacewalk also marked the 65th spacewalk outside the ISS. It was the
second career spacewalk for Williams and the sixth for Vinogradov, who still
marveled at some of the excursion's simple tasks despite his experience.
"This is something
I've never done before, I'm wiping my hands in space," Vinogradov said as
he brushed his spacesuit clean after one task. "I always say wipe your
hands."
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