Untitled Document
This
story was updated at 5:11 p.m. EDT.
With a big
lean back and a giant push forward, American astronaut Clayton Anderson heaved
a 1,400-pound (635-kilogram) tank of ammonia from the International Space
Station today (ISS).
"Jettison!"
Anderson shouted shortly after tossing the unneeded refrigerator-sized
container from the robotic arm of the station.
The junking
of equipment was one of two today during the seven-hour-and-41-minute spacewalk
that began at about 200 miles above the Earth. Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin
joined Anderson outside, while cosmonaut Oleg Kotov maneuvered the station's
Canadian-built robotic arm around with Anderson on the end.
"This
is the first day and the first time a Russian cosmonaut has operated, in orbit,
the [station's] robotic arm," Anderson said, adding his appreciation for
Yurchikhin's participation. "I'm very appreciative of their work."
"Fyodor,
come outside and play," Anderson told Yurchikhin once he emerged from the U.S. Unity module's airlock at 6:24
a.m. (1024) GMT, officially beginning the spacewalk.
Time to
jettison
Once
outside, Anderson and Yurchikhin began installing a video stanchion, or support
frame, on one of the station's trusses. The equipment will be used to hold a
video camera that will assist with future expansion of the ISS.
The two
then separated, with Yurchikhin replacing a failed circuit breaker for the
station's truss-based rail car system, and Anderson disconnecting cabling
hooked up to the tank of unneeded ammonia coolant.
"Our
spaceship Earth is a beautiful place," Anderson said while describing his
view outside of the growing international laboratory.
Around 8:55
a.m. EDT (1255 GMT), Anderson snapped into the foothold on the space station's
robotic arm, then moved out into space with 212 pounds (96 kilograms) of flight
support equipment that previously held the stanchion into place.
Using a
maneuver practiced back on Earth, Anderson leaned back, then forward and gave
the equipment a mighty push into
space.
"It
looks pretty cool, like a huge star, and the brightness of it changes as it
rotates," Anderson said of the careening hunk of equipment, which he threw
more than 1 foot (30 cm) per second. He then joked about the success of the
throw.
"I'll
be sending my bill in the mail for garbage disposal," he told mission
control in at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas following the jettison.
NASA expects the object to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere within 330 days.
Yurchikhin
then assisted Anderson with disconnecting the second junked equipment, this
time the 1,400-pound (635-kilogram) backup reservoir
of ammonia. NASA said in several briefings that the tank had reached the
"end of its life," as far as its structural integrity was concerned,
and was no longer needed on the ISS. Discarding the equipment also helped clear
the station's mast-like Port 6 truss for relocation later this year, mission
managers have said.
After the
big toss, Anderson requested that mission control call his family and tell them
he "just threw
a 17,500-mile-an-hour fastball."
NASA will keep a close watch on the adrift ammonia tank and
video camera stanchion support frame as they spiral towards Earth to ensure
they don't post a risk to the ISS or other spacecraft. Mission managers plan to
boost the space station's orbit later tonight to provide extra clearance and
ready the orbital laboratory for the arrival of an unmanned Russian cargo ship
and NASA's Endeavour shuttle crew next month.
Extra
innings
After the
dangerous task of tossing space junk was complete, the astronauts began work on
other projects.
Yurchikhin
moved to the Unity module, where he enlisted a scraping device to clean off
spots of grime which had stuck to a common berthing mechanism (CBM), or fine
silicon seal.
"There's
a lot of debris there," Yurchikhin said as he scraped the grit away. The
cosmonaut described the material as an oily substance mixed with bits of hair
and possibly paper. "It just spreads everywhere."
The cleaned
seal will ensure an airtight connection when the station's Expedition 15 crew
moves a pressurized mating adapter later this year.
While
Yurchikhin cleaned, Anderson maneuvered himself off of the robotic arm and
removed a faulty global positioning satellite (GPS) antenna outside of the space station.
"One GPS is in the bag,"
Anderson said after unbolting the basketball-sized device, which is one of four on the ISS. The project came as an addition to the check-list,
as the both astronauts made good time in completing their tasks.
As the
spacewalk neared its end, Yurchikhin began to clean up and look for stray tools
and bags of equipment. Meanwhile, mission control instructed Anderson to loosen
some bolts in preparation for future expansion of the space station.
Both
astronauts climbed inside the airlock and closed the hatch at about 2:06 p.m.
EDT (1604 GMT), making for a total spacewalk time of seven hours and 41 minutes.
The spacewalk marked Anderson's first time outside the ISS and Yurchikhin's
third.
"We truly thank you for your
perfect execution," mission control said shortly before the hatch closed.
advertisement
