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Two Russian cosmonauts used the Worldwide Area Station’s Poisk docking compartment as an airlock for the primary time Wednesday in a six-hour 48-minute spacewalk to start getting ready the practically an identical Pirs module for elimination subsequent yr. A brand new laboratory module will probably be parked instead later.
Expedition 64 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov started the yr’s eighth spacewalk at 10:12 a.m. EST. The tour, the primary for each cosmonauts, comes simply two days after arrival of four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon business ferry ship.
Poisk was launched nearly precisely 11 years in the past, on November 10, 2009, and hooked up to the Zvezda module’s higher port two days later. It has been used as a docking port for unpiloted Progress cargo carriers and Soyuz crew ferry ships many occasions however by no means as an airlock.
NASA
Earlier than venturing exterior, the cosmonauts spent greater than an hour ensuring Poisk’s never-before-used facet hatch could possibly be safely opened and tightly shut with an hermetic seal and that the hatch main into the principle physique of the station was leak free when the compartment was at or close to vacuum.
Carrying their Orlan spacesuits, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov partially depressurized Poisk for an preliminary spherical of leak checks. NASA crewmate Kate Rubins carried out related checks from contained in the Russian section of the station and the strain on either side was rock stable.
The cosmonauts then took Poisk to hoover, opened the facet spacewalk hatch for the primary time and inspected its seals for any indicators of overseas object particles or injury. Spare sealing materials was obtainable if wanted, however the inspection discovered no indicators of any bother.
They then closed the hatch and ran further leak checks earlier than re-opening it and floating exterior simply after 11 a.m. to start the 232nd spacewalk dedicated to station meeting and upkeep.
NASA
The primary merchandise on the agenda is to put in a brand new fluid-flow regulator to assist flow into liquids within the Russian Zarya module, the station’s first module, launched 20 years in the past November 20. However the cosmonauts had been unable to open the the gear service, and flight controllers advised them to return it to the airlock and press on with different work. The regulator will probably be changed throughout a future spacewalk.
The cosmonauts then retrieved a supplies science area publicity pallet from the Pirs module and disconnected a telemetry cable connecting Pirs to the Zvezda module. The cable was reconnected to Poisk, starting the method of ending the usage of Pirs as an airlock.
The spacewalkers repositioned a rocket plume impingement detector and retrieved an experiment tray that helps engineers assess micrometeoroid impacts earlier than returning to Poisk and shutting the hatch a remaining time at 5 p.m. Spacewalk length was six hours and 48 minutes, pushing complete station spacewalk time to 1,458 hours and 51 minutes.
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