EVAs in March

[GordonD]

1 MARCH

 

2015 Barry Wilmore & Terry Virts (ISS Expedition 42)

 

Duration 5 hr 38 min

 

Third and final EVA to reconfigure the ISS for future commercial spacecraft arrivals. Cabling and several rendezvous antennas were installed, which will be used by Boeing's Crew Transportation System and SpaceX's Dragon. 

 

Fourth and final EVA for Wilmore: his career total is 25 hr 36 min; third and final one for Virts: his total is 19 hr 2 min.

[GordonD]

2 MARCH

 

2011 Stephen Bowen & Alvin Drew (STS-133/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 14 min

 

The start of the EVA was delayed by 24 minutes when a small leak was detected in the lithium hydroxide canister on Bowen's suit, but once an O-ring had been replaced everything was fine. For much of the EVA the astronauts worked on separate tasks: Bowen transferred an adapter plate assembly to the Orbiter's cargo bay, while Drew retrieved the tool he had stowed alongside the ammonia pump module on the previous space-walk and used it to drain the remaining coolant. The astronauts then teamed up to remove installation from the exterior of the station and install sunshades on a camera, fit a spotlight and relocate a foot restraint and a Russian adapter on the manipulator arm. As the EVA came to an end, the light on Drew's helmet became detached. Bowen tried to put it back but was unsuccessful, so they attached it to a tether to bring it back into the airlock.

 

Seventh and final EVA for Bowen, giving him a career total of 47 hr 18 min; second and final one for Drew: his total is 12 hr 48 min.

[GordonD]

3 MARCH

 

1998 Talgat Musabeyev & Nikolai Budarin [IVA] (Mir EO-25)

 

Duration 1 hr 10 min (aborted)

 

The purpose of this EVA was to carry out repairs on the Spektr module's solar panels, which had been damaged in the collision with the Progress M-34 freighter. However the wrench used to open the outer airlock hatch broke and as a result the EVA had to be abandoned.

 

Under the Russian system this is classed as an Intra-Vehicular Activity as the cosmonauts were suited up in vacuum; it would not have counted by American standards as they did not have at least their heads outside the spacecraft.

 

Third EVA for Musabeyev; fourth for Budarin

[GordonD]

4 MARCH

 

2002 John Grunsfeld & Richard Linnehan (STS-109)

 

Duration 7 hr 1 min

 

First of five EVAs on the fourth Hubble servicing mission (HST-SM-3B). The main task was to replace the starboard solar array with a smaller, more powerful unit: the original was brought back to Earth to be examined. This was accomplished with the astronauts using foot restraints on the end of the manipulator arm, while Nancy Currie aboard Columbia moved them to the required position.

 

During the EVA it was found that Grunsfeld's space-suit was not sending its telemetry signal to the ground, though his biomedical data was coming through as normal. After the EVA was concluded, the problem was fixed by resetting the suit's power supply.

 

Third EVA for Grunsfeld; first for Linnehan.

[GordonD]

5 MARCH

 

2002 James Newman & Mike Massimino (STS-109)

 

Duration 7 hr 16 min

 

Second EVA of the Hubble servicing mission. The astronauts first replaced the port solar array with the new smaller, more powerful type (the starboard array had been replaced the previous day). They then installed a Reaction Wheel Assembly, used to reorient the telescope. This went so smoothly that the astronauts were able to accomplish additional tasks not planned for this EVA: fitting foot restraints that would be used by Grunsfeld and Linnehan the following day, and installing thermal blankets on one of the electronic bays.

 

Fifth EVA for Newman; first for Massimino

[GordonD]

6 MARCH

 

1969 Rusty Schweickart [EVA] & Dave Scott [SEVA] (Apollo 9)

 

Duration 46 min

 

Schweickart wore the full lunar surface space-suit, including the PLSS backpack, that Armstrong and Aldrin would use four months later. Original plans were for him to demonstrate an emergency transfer back to the CSM if the Lunar Module was unable to redock, but he suffered from space-sickness in the early days of the flight and it was decided to cut back the EVA to the minimum while still allowing the suit to be tested. Initially it was even decided that Schweickart would not even leave the LM, but would simply test the suit inside the cabin while isolated from the life-support system. However on the day of the test he was feeling much better and was allowed to proceed with the cut-down EVA. Schweickart emerged from the LM's front hatch and stood in the foot restraints mounted on the 'porch'. Meanwhile Scott, back in the Command Module, opened its hatch and performed a Stand-up EVA, demonstrating the CMP's role in an emergency transfer. Schweickart took several photos of him, his red helmet standing out particularly clearly against the otherwise pastel-shaded background. With Schweickart still feeling fine, he was permitted to retrieve thermal samples from the exterior of the LM and test handrails.

 

Only EVA for Schweickart; the first for Scott (he had lost the opportunity on his previous flight when Gemini VIII had to make an emergency landing after a thruster malfunction).

 

 

2002 John Grunsfeld & Richard Linnehan (STS-109)

 

Duration 6 hr 48 min

 

Third Hubble servicing EVA. The start was delayed due to a water leak in Grunsfeld's suit: he replaced the upper portion and the EVA proceeded. The astronauts installed a new Control Unit to handle the increased power from the newly-fitted solar arrays: this required the telescope to be powered down for the first time since its launch twelve years earlier. The installation required the unplugging of thirty-six connectors: Linnehan dealt with thirty of them before Grunsfeld took over for the remaining six: the old unit was stowed away in the Orbiter's cargo bay and the new one slotted in place and the cables reconnected. Power-up went without a hitch, proving that the swap-over had been a success.

 

Fourth EVA for Grunsfeld; second for Linnehan.

[GordonD]

7 MARCH

 

2002 James Newman & Mike Massimino (STS-109)

 

Duration 7 hr 30 min

 

Phase Four of the Hubble upgrade/maintenance programme. The astronauts first removed the telescope's Faint Object Camera (the last remaining instrument that was present at launch) and replaced it with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was ten times more efficient than the FOC. This was the first actual upgrade to a science instrument, as opposed to power and support equipment, carried out on STS-109. Massimino then installed the Electronic Support Module, the first element of an experimental cooling system, a task which would be completed the following day.

 

Sixth and last EVA for Newman, giving him a career total of 43 hr 13 min. Second EVA for Massimino.

[GordonD]

8 MARCH

 

2002 John Grunsfeld & Richard Linnehan (STS-109)

 

Duration 7 hr 20 min

 

This completed the fourth Hubble servicing mission. The astronauts completed the installation of a new Cryocooler for the Near Infrared Camera/Multi-Object Spectrometer, a task begun by Massimino the previous day. NICMOS had been fitted during the second servicing flight, STS-82 in 1997, and contained a heat sink of solid nitrogen, but this had been consumed more quickly than anticipated and the instrument had operated for only two years, half the planned lifetime. The new Cryocooler would return it to full working order. Its installation involved fitting a radiator to Hubble's exterior, then feeding cables through the bottom of the telescope to connect to the cooler. 

 

Over the five EVAs, the four astronauts had spent a combined total of 35 hr 55 min working on the telescope, more than any other maintenance crew.

 

Fifth EVA for Grunsfeld; third for Linnehan.

[GordonD]

9 MARCH

 

No EVAs on this date

[GordonD]

10 MARCH

 

2009 Michael Fincke & Yuri Lonchakov (ISS Expedition 18)

 

Duration 4 hr 49 min

 

The first task was to install the ESA's Expose-R space-exposure experiment. This had originally been fitted during a previous EVA in December, but telemetry signals were not received and the device had been disconnected again and taken back inside the station. This time it worked as hoped. The astronauts then cut off excess lengths of fabric straps on the Pirs docking target to make sure there would be no interference with approaching Soyuz or other spacecraft. A thermal flap was closed over an electrical connector panel and photographs were taken of the exterior of the Russian portion of the ISS, to assess its condition after ten years in orbit.

 

Sixth EVA for Fincke; second and last for Lonchakov, giving him a career total of 10 hr 27 min.

[GordonD]

11 MARCH

 

2001 James Voss & Susan Helms (STS-102/ISS)

 

Duration 8 hr 56 min (longest EVA in history)

 

Voss and Helms had arrived aboard Discovery but would be remaining on the ISS when the Shuttle departed, as two-thirds of the new Expedition 2 team. Thus technically they were still members of the Shuttle's crew manifest when they carried out what remains the longest EVA in spaceflight history. Their task was to remove the Pressurised Mating Adapter from the station's Node 1 so that the Leonardo logistics module could be berthed in its place.

 

Third EVA for Voss; the only one for Helms.

[GordonD]

12 MARCH

 

No EVAs on this date.

[GordonD]

13 MARCH

 

2001 Andrew Thomas & Paul Richards (STS-102/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 21 min

 

The astronauts connected power cables to the base unit for the station's manipulator arm, which would be delivered on the next Shuttle mission, then installed the External Stowage Platform that would eventually house both heating power to equipment storage and a Pump and Flow Control Subassembly to regulate ammonia coolant flow.

 

This was the only EVA for both astronauts.

 

[GordonD]

14 MARCH

 

2008 Rich Linnehan & Garrett Reisman (STS-123/ISS)

 

Duration 7 hr 1 min

 

The first of five EVAs scheduled for this Shuttle mission. The astronauts first installed and powered up the Japanese Kibo laboratory module. This involved disconnecting heater cables linking the module to Endeavour, then detaching the covers on the locks which secured it in place in the cargo bay. Takao Doi and Dom Gorie, aboard the ISS, then used the station's manipulator arm to lift Kibo out of the cargo bay and move it into position next to the Harmony module. Linnehan and Reisman then mounted the Centerline Berthing Camera System on Harmony, providing live TV images to assist Doi and Gorie to align the new module precisely before it was secured in place.

 

Fourth EVA for Linnehan; first for Reisman

[GordonD]

15 MARCH

 

1996 Yuri Onufriyenko & Yuri Usachyov (Mir Expedition 21)

 

Duration 5 hr 52 min

 

Though Mir was equipped with a Strela boom, similar to the Shuttle's manipulator arm, it could reach only one side of the station so this EVA had the cosmonauts installing a second one, which would extend as far as the Kristall module. They attached the new boom to brackets on the Mir base block then opened it out to the full 12m length. Satisfied that it was in working order, they used it to return to the airlock hatch on Kvant 2, closing out the EVA.

 

First EVA for both cosmonauts.

 

 

[GordonD]

16 MARCH

 

2008 Rich Linnehan & Michael Foreman (STS-123/ISS)

 

Duration 7 hr 8 min

 

Second EVA on this mission. The astronauts began assembling the Canadian-built Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, nicknamed Dextre, a sophisticated robot which could perform small maintenance and repair tasks, making EVAs more efficient by freeing up the astronauts' time for experiment work. In this first phase covers were removed and Dextre's arms fitted.

 

Fifth EVA for Linnehan; first for Foreman

[GordonD]

17 MARCH

 

2008 Rich Linnehan & Robert Behnken (STS-123/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 53 min

 

The astronauts continued the assembly of the Dextre robot, mounting a Camera Light Pan Tilt Assembly and a tool platform and removing most of its thermal covers, then prepared its carrier pallet for return to Earth aboard the Orbiter. They then attempted to mount some space exposure packages to the Columbus Module but found the locating hole was blocked and were unable to complete this task.

 

Sixth and final EVA for Linnehan: his career total is 42 hr 11 min. First EVA for Behnken.

 

[GordonD]

18 MARCH

 

1965 Alexei Leonov (Voskhod 2)

 

Duration 16 min (accounts vary)

 

This was the very first EVA of all and nobody knew what to expect. Because Voskhod's systems were air-cooled, the cabin could not be depressurised or they would overheat in vacuum, so it had been necessary to fit the spacecraft with a collapsible airlock, which had been designed, built and tested in just nine months. It comprised two metal rings 1.2m wide, connected by a double-walled fabric tube with a deployed length of 2.5m. At launch the airlock protruded 74cm beyond Voskhod's hull. At the planned time the airlock was extended and Leonov entered, then Belyayev closed the inner hatch behind him. The tube was then depressurised and Leonov opened the outer hatch and became the first man to emerge into open space. He was secured to the spacecraft by a 15m tether, which he said gave him tight control over his movements, though later USA experience cast doubt on this. Though initial reports said that everything had gone according to plan, it was later revealed that Leonov's suit had ballooned up, making bending his arms difficult: he was unable to reach the shutter switch on his chest-mounted camera so could not photograph the spacecraft. Nor could he retrieve one of the cameras which was recording his EVA. However it was when he returned to the airlock that the real problems began. Against procedure, he entered head-first and got stuck sideways when he tried to reach back to close the outer hatch. He was forced to reduce his suit's pressure to a dangerous level, risking an attack of the 'bends', so he could turn round to shut the hatch. Finally however he managed this and the first EVA was over. It had taken its physical toll: doctors reported that Leonov's body temperature had climbed by 1.8° C and the cosmonaut found himself up to his knees in perspiration, which he could feel sloshing around his legs when he moved. Nevertheless the first EVA had set the scene for many to come.

 

Leonov's only EVA.

[GordonD]

19 MARCH

 

2009 Steven Swanson & Richard Arnold (STS-119/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 7 min

 

Aboard the ISS, John Phillips and Koichi Wakata used the station's manipulator arm to lift the S6 Truss, 13.7m long with a mass of 14 tonnes, out of Discovery's payload bay. Once it was in position, Arnold and Swanson bolted it in place and hooked up data and power cables. This brought the station's keel to a length of 102m.

 

Third EVA for Swanson; the first for Arnold.

 

 

[GordonD]

20 MARCH

 

2008 Robert Behnken & Michael Foreman (STS-123/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 24 min

 

The astronauts replaced a faulty Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) on the Z1 Truss, in an attempt to reconfigure power lines to one of the station's gyroscopes. However, they were unable to unplug the electrical connections. They then experimented with Shuttle tile repair techniques and tools and removed launch locks and berthing mechanisms on the Harmony Module. Finally they removed the last thermal cover from the Dextre robot.

 

Second EVA for both astronauts.

 

[GordonD]

21 MARCH

 

2009 Steven Swanson & Joseph Acaba (STS-119/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 30 min

 

Prime task was to prepare a worksite for the installation of new batteries due to be delivered on a future Shuttle mission. The astronauts then installed a GPS antenna on the Kibo lab's pressurised logistics module.  They were also supposed to fit an Unpressurised Cargo Carrier Attachment System (UCCAS) but found that a bracket was misaligned and they did not have the tools available to fix it. This activity was postponed until a future EVA, and instead they took infrared photos of the P1 and S1 radiators.

 

Fourth EVA for Swanson; first for Acaba.

[GordonD]

22 MARCH

 

2008 Robert Behnken & Michael Foreman (STS-123/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 2 min

 

The astronauts removed the Orbital Boom Sensor System from the manipulator arm and temporarily stowed it on the S1 Truss. This device is used to detect thermal damage. They also installed a Trundle Bearing Assembly on the rotation joint for one of the solar arrays and inspected its covers. Finally they successfully installed an experiment pallet on the exterior of the Columbus Module, a task which Behnken and Linnehan had been unable to complete a few days earlier.

 

Third EVA for both astronauts.

 

 

 
2019 Anne McClain & Nick Hague (ISS Expedition 59)

 

Duration 6 hr 39 min

 

The astronauts replaced nickel-hydrogen batteries with more powerful lithium-ion cells (a gradual process which had been ongoing for two years), as well as removing debris from the outside of the station, securing a tieback for restraints on the Solar Array Blanket box and photographing a bag of tools to be used for contingency repairs and the thermal cover on the airlock.

 

First EVA for both astronauts.

[GordonD]

23 MARCH

 

2009 Richard Arnold & Joseph Acaba (STS-119/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 27 min

 

The astronauts relocated one of the CETA carts to a new position. This was the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid, a device capable of transporting loads of up to 540kg along the station's keel. They then attempted to deploy one of the ISS's spare equipment platforms, but the mechanism was stuck and they were unable to complete the task. The plan had also called for them to work on a similar platform on the other side of the truss, but mindful of the problem encountered by Swanson and Acaba on the previous EVA, Mission Control instructed them to forego this work in case there was a more serious fault. The EVA ended with the astronauts lubricating the end effector of the manipulator arm, to prevent it snagging as it retracted to its stowed configuration.

 

Second EVA for both astronauts.

[GordonD]

24 MARCH

 

2017 Shane Kimbrough & Thomas Pesquet (ISS Expedition 50)

 

Duration 6 hr 34 min

 

The astronauts disconnected data and electrical cables feeding one of the Pressurised Mating Adapters ready for its transfer to the Harmony Module. This would provide the interface between the ISS and the International Docking Adapter, to be used by the commercial spacecraft being developed by Boeing and SpaceX. They also lubricated the end effector on the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, an extension to the Canadarm2, inspected a radiator valve and replaced cameras on the Japanese module.

 

Fifth EVA for Kimbrough; second and final (to date) for Pesquet: his career total is 12 hr 32 min

 

 

[GordonD]

25 MARCH

 

No EVAs on this date.