EVAs in August

[GordonD]

1 AUGUST

 

1971 Dave Scott & Jim Irwin [LSEVA] (Apollo 15 LM)

 

Duration 7 hr 13 min

 

Acting on the results of the first traverse, Mission Control modified the route of the second EVA to minimise driving time and maximise the time doing science work. The start was again delayed by problems in charging the PLSS backpacks, but when they did reach the surface the astronauts were delighted to find that the Rover's front steering was working again. They began with a 12.5km drive southeast to the foot of the Hadley Delta mountain and back: the LRV climbed the lower slopes with no difficulty. They reached a height of nearly 100m above the LM, though soft material on the slopes provided poor footing and when stationary the Rover began to slide. In the 1/6th gravity Irwin was able to hold it while Scott picked up a rock. Then at Spur Crater the astronauts found what is arguably the single most interesting sample from the entire Apollo programme: dubbed the 'Genesis Rock', it was originally thought to be part of the Moon's primordial crust but has more recently been dated to around four billion years old, formed after the crust had solidified. Scott described the area as 'a goldmine' of interesting samples, so their time there was extended to 49 minutes. So many rocks were collected that the LRV bounced when they dropped the storage box on it! The astronauts then had to rush because they were reaching the limit of their 'walkback' capability: the distance they could cover on foot if the Rover broke down. Back at the LM, Scott drilled a hole to obtain a core sample but found this very difficult. He then found that the 3m-long core tube could not be removed and was advised to abandon this until the next EVA. Before climbing back aboard the LM, the astronauts planted the US flag.

 

Fourth EVA for Scott; Irwin's second.

 

 

2005 Stephen Robinson & Soichi Noguchi (STS-114/ISS)

 

Duration 7 hr 14 min

 

Most of this EVA was taken up by replacing a failed gyroscope: the astronauts disconnected the malfunctioning unit and transferred it to the Orbiter's cargo bay, then retrieved the new gyroscope and installed it on the station. This restored the ISS to four properly functioning gyros. As the EVA drew to a close, they prepared tools for the final space-walk of the mission, due in two days' time.

 

Second EVA for both astronauts.

[GordonD]

2 AUGUST

 

1971 Dave Scott & Jim Irwin [LSEVA] (Apollo 15 LM)

 

Duration 4 hr 50 min

 

On the two previous EVAs the astronauts had problems with bubbles in the water supply, caused by the PLSS backpacks being at an angle while charging due to the LM having landed with one footpad in a crater. This time, they ensured that the backpacks were propped upright, eliminating the problem. Surgeons on Earth had monitored irregular heartbeats, later traced to potassium deficiency, and the start of the EVA was delayed by an hour and forty-five minutes to allow the crew additional rest time. This in turn meant that the EVA had to be shortened. When it began, Scott managed to free the stuck core tube but the astronauts then found it could not be taken apart because the vice on the LRV had been assembled backwards! They were finally able to dismantle it with a wrench but this used up an additional 28 minutes of time on the surface. Finally they began their traverse, driving 5km west to Scarp Crater then turning northwest to Hadley Rille. This was the first time they had passed out of sight of the LM, though there was no danger of them getting lost: if all else failed they could have retraced their own wheel tracks. By the time they returned to the landing site the astronauts had covered almost 50km and collected nearly 80kg of samples. Scott parked the Rover a safe distance from the LM so that for the first time their lunar liftoff could be covered on television.

 

Fifth EVA for Scott (a record): his career total amounts to 19 hr 54 min. Third EVA for Irwin.

 

 

1985 Vladimir Dzhanibekov & Viktor Savinykh (Salyut 7 Expedition 4)

 

Duration 5 hr

 

This was the first use of the Orlan-DM spacesuit, which provided greater mobility than its predecessor, which would be required on future assembly EVAs. These had been delivered aboard Kosmos 1669, a Progress freighter in all but name. The cosmonauts augmented Salyut's port solar array with two extension panels, one of an experimental design. Parts of the EVA were shown live on Soviet television. The cosmonauts were able to continue working during the orbital night thanks to spotlights on the new suits' helmets. Before returning to the airlock, they installed a Franco-Soviet experiment to collect meteoric dust (including, it was hoped, some from Halley's Comet) and changed out space exposure cassettes.

 

Second and last EVA for Dzhanibekov, giving a total of 8 hr 35 min. Savinykh's only EVA.

[GordonD]

3 AUGUST

 

2004 Gennady Padalka & Michael Fincke (ISS Expedition 9)

 

Duration 4 hr 30 min

 

In preparation for the arrival of the first European ATV cargo freighter Jules Verne, the astronauts installed two antennas and other docking equipment, and replaced six laser reflectors with four more advanced models. They also disconnected the cable of a failed camera, finishing the EVA by replacing various external experiment packages.

 

Padalka's fifth EVA; Fincke's third.

 

 

2005 Stephen Robinson & Soichi Noguchi (STS-114/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 1 min

 

Robinson rode the station's manipulator arm to Discovery's underside, the first time an astronaut had ventured to this area of an Orbiter. It had been discovered that two gap fillers between heat-shield tiles had been dislodged and were protruding a centimetre or so. While it was not thought this would present a problem during re-entry, it was decided to remove them. Elaborate plans were drawn up on how to deal with this, up to and including sawing them back flush with the tiles, but Robinson was able to simply pluck them out with his fingers. With this task accomplished, the astronauts completed the installation of the external stowage platform, which would be used in the future to store spare parts. Finally they installed the MISSE package that would expose materials to the space environment for long-duration periods.

 

Third and last EVA for both men: their total amounts to 20 hr 5 min.

 

 

 
2006 Jeffrey Williams & Thomas Reiter (ISS Expedition 13)

 

Duration 5 hr 54 min

 

The astronauts installed the Floating Potential Measurement Unit, a tool that measured the ISS's electrical potential. They then fitted two more MISSE packages before splitting up to carry out separate tasks. Williams installed a controller to the S1 Truss's rotary joint while Reiter replaced a computer. They fitted several Spool Positioning Devices and a jumper to improve the flow of ammonia. The astronauts then recombined to test an infrared camera, designed to locate thermal protection damage, plus miscellaneous items of equipment.

 

Third EVA for both astronauts: Reiter's last, bringing his career total to 14 hr 15 min.

 

 

2011 Sergei Volkov & Aleksandr Samokutyayev (ISS Expedition 28)

 

Duration 6 hr 23 min

 

The cosmonauts were due to deploy an amateur radio satellite but noticed that one of the antennas was missing, so waited for instructions from Mission Control. After being given the go-ahead they pushed the satellite in a retrograde direction to ensure it would rapidly drift away from the station. They then installed a laser communications experiment on the universal work platform. The planned relocation of the Strela crane was cancelled as there was insufficient time remaining.

 

Third EVA for Volkov; the first for Samokutyayev.

[GordonD]

4 AUGUST

 

No EVAs on this date.

[GordonD]

5 AUGUST

 

1971 Al Worden [CLEVA], Jim Irwin [SEVA] (Apollo 15 CSM)

 

Duration 38 min

 

As the first of the science-heavy J-missions, Apollo 15's Service Module was equipped with a SIMBAY containing various instruments including two cameras. The film cassettes of these had to be retrieved before the SM was jettisoned, and this was CMP Al Worden's job. He carried out the first EVA in CisLunar space, with Irwin providing support standing in the Command Module hatch. Worden crawled back along the Service Module and removed the 39kg Itek panoramic camera cassette, which he tethered to his arm then carried it back to Irwin. On the second trip, Worden picked up the 10kg cassette from the Fairchild surface mapping camera. When this had been safely passed to Irwin, Worden made a third, unplanned, foray to inspect some of the instruments which had malfunctioned during the mission.

 

Worden's only EVA; Irwin's fourth (including his four Lunar Surface excursions), giving him a total of 19 hr 13 min.

[GordonD]

6 AUGUST

 

1973 Owen Garriott & Jack Lousma (Skylab 3)

 

Duration 6 hr 31 min

 

This EVA was scheduled for Day Four of the mission, but space sickness among the crew meant it was delayed until the tenth day aboard. The main purpose was to install a second sunshade: tests on the ground had determined that the nylon fabric of the parasol installed by the previous crew would deteriorate from exposure to solar UV radiation. Garriott assembled two poles, each consisting of eleven 1.5m sections, and passed them to Lousma, who was standing in a foot restraint attached to a handrail on the telescope mount. Lousma then attached the poles to a base plate, unfurled the sunshade fabric and secured a reefing line to make it lie flat. The completed shade was then swung into position. With this task complete, the astronauts moved on to other things: Lousma replaced camera film on the telescope mount, then from this vantage point inspected the RCS quads on the Apollo Service Module. A leak had been detected but Lousma could see no obvious signs of this. Had the problem been serious, the mission would have been cut short but in the event it was allowed to run its planned duration. He then removed two bolts to prevent a telescope aperture door from sticking (these had not been designed to be worked on in space) and set up the Micrometeoroid Particle Collection experiment. Originally, this would have been deployed through the science airlock, but this was now blocked by the parasol so had been redesigned to be configured manually.

 

First EVA for both astronauts.

 

 

[GordonD]

7 AUGUST

 

2010 Douglas Wheelock & Tracy Caldwell-Dyson (ISS Expedition 24)

 

Duration 8 hr 3 min

 

The coolant pump on the S1 Truss had failed and required replacement. The astronauts first attempted to disconnect the four ammonia feed lines from the pump: while three of them were successfully removed, the fourth one leaked and contaminated the spacesuits. It was decided to reattach the connection and use a spool-positioning device to maintain the correct pressure within the ammonia circuit. The astronauts had to undergo a decontamination routine before re-entering the space station.

 

Fourth EVA for Wheelock; Caldwell-Dyson's first.

[GordonD]

8 AUGUST

 

1984 Leonid Kizim & Vladimir Solovyov (Salyut 7 Expedition 3)

 

Duration 5 hr

 

Previous attempts to repair the oxidiser leak in Salyut's attitude control system had been unsuccessful because when the fault was finally traced it was realised that the cosmonauts did not have the correct tool. This was delivered aboard Soyuz T-12, whose commander Vladimir Dzhanibekov had been trained in its use. He in turn instructed the Salyut crew in what had to be done. The cosmonauts peeled back the thermal insulation and used the pneumatic tool to squeeze shut a stainless steel pipe, at last sealing the leak.

 

Sixth EVA for both cosmonauts (a new record); also a record for the number of EVAs on a single mission.

[GordonD]

9 AUGUST

 

No EVAs on this date.

[GordonD]

10 AUGUST

 

2015 Gennadi Padalka & Mikhail Korniyenko (ISS Expedition 44)

 

The cosmonauts rigged new equipment on the Russian segment of the ISS and conducted a detailed photographic inspection of the station's exterior.

 

Final EVA for both cosmonauts. Padalka (holder of the record for the most time spent in space, at 878 days 11 hr 31 min by the end of the mission) had conducted ten, with a total of 38 hr 37 min. Korniyenko's two EVAs totalled 12 hr 13 min.

 

Duration 5 hr 31 min

 

 

 

 

[GordonD]

11 AUGUST

 

2007 Rick Mastracchio & Dafydd Williams (STS-118/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 17 min

 

Activity focussed on the installation of the S5 Truss. From within the ISS, Hobaugh and Anderson used the station's manipulator arm to move the new component into position, guided by the EVA team. Once it was in place, it was permanently attached with the automatic latches and the astronauts secured the primary structural bolts then hooked up electrical lines and removed the launch locks. As the EVA was ahead of schedule, they also opened the capture latches on the new truss to make future EVAs run more smoothly.

 

First EVA for both astronauts.

 

 

2010 Douglas Wheelock & Tracy Caldwell-Dyson (ISS Expedition 24)

 

Duration 7 hr 26 min

 

On the previous EVA the attempt to remove a failed ammonia coolant pump had to be abandoned after a leak contaminated the spacesuits. This time things were more successful: Wheelock closed the ammonia valve before disconnecting the leaking line, then Caldwell-Dyson detached five electrical and data cables from the old pump while Wheelock unfastened its four bolts. The pump was stowed on the Mobile Base System's payload bracket.

 

Fifth EVA for Wheelock; second for Caldwell-Dyson.

[GordonD]

12 AUGUST

 

No EVAs on this date.

 

(Apologies for the late posting but torrential rain during the night knocked out Broadband in much of Edinburgh and I've only just managed to get on line. Fortunately there wasn't anything to report anyway!)

[GordonD]

13 AUGUST

 

2007 Rick Mastracchio & Dafydd Williams (STS-118/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 28 min

 

The astronauts replaced one of the space station's gyroscopes, which had been out of action since the previous October. The operation involved both the Orbiter and ISS manipulator arms, and the new unit was installed on the Z1 Truss. The malfunctioning gyroscope was parked on a pallet outside the airlock, to be returned to Earth on a future Shuttle flight. They also photographed some space exposure experiments to assess their progress.

 

Second EVA for both astronauts.

 

 

 

[GordonD]

14 AUGUST

 

No EVAs on this date.

[GordonD]

15 AUGUST

 

1979 Valeri Ryumin & Vladimir Lyakhov (Salyut 6 Expedition 3) 

 

Duration 1 hr 23 min

 

The Progress 7 freighter, which arrived at Salyut on 28 June, had delivered a wire mesh radio telescope which was 10m in diameter when unfurled. After the cargo craft departed, the cosmonauts deployed the dish through the station's aft docking port, but the results were disappointing and the dish was jettisoned. Unfortunately it snagged on a communications antenna and an unscheduled EVA was required to release it. Ryumin emerged first, about ten minutes before Salyut entered orbital night, then remained where he was until the station came back into sunlight. Lyakhov then paid out his colleague's tether as Ryumin crawled along the length of Salyut. To release the antenna, Ryumin had to cut four 1mm steel cables and each time he snipped one, the dish pitched towards him, threatening to cut his suit. Finally the antenna was free and he pushed it away. All of this was taking place out of contact with Mission Control and when communications were restored and the cosmonauts reported the task was complete, they were not believed at first. However the EVA had been a great success and was depicted on a pair of Soviet postage stamps.

 

This was the last EVA for almost three years. 

 

Ryumin's only EVA; Lyakhov's first.

 

 

2007 Rick Mastracchio & Clayton Anderson (STS-118/ISS)

 

Duration 5 hr 28 min

 

While Mastracchio was a Shuttle crew member, Anderson was an ISS resident, but they teamed up to move the S-band antenna assembly from the P6 Truss to the P1. They also monitored the station's manipulator arm as it was used to relocate two equipment transfer carts, which would ultimately allow the solar array segment to be placed in its final position. During the EVA, Mastracchio noticed a small hole in his glove, and while this caused no leakage he was instructed to re-enter the airlock as a precaution. Anderson continued working alone and was able to complete the task of installing a new transponder on P1 and retrieving an old unit from P6. Further work was postponed and the EVA terminated earlier than planned.

 

Mastracchio's third EVA; Anderson's second.

 

 

2018 Oleg Artemyev & Sergei Prokopyev (ISS Expedition 56)

 

Duration 7 hr 46 min

 

The cosmonauts manually deployed four small technology satellites and installed an experiment named Icarus on the exterior of the Russian segment.

 

Artemyev's third and last EVA (to date): his career total amounts to 20 hr 20 min. Prokopyev's first.

[GordonD]

16 AUGUST

 

2001 Daniel Barry & Patrick Forrester (STS-105/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 16 min

 

The astronauts installed an Early Ammonia Servicer on the P6 Truss, part of the coolant system. They also fitted two sample containers holding a total of 750 different materials for a long-term space exposure experiment: these would be left in place for approximately 18 months before being returned to Earth for analysis.

 

Third EVA for Barry; the first for Forrester.

 

 

2002 Valeri Korzun & Peggy Whitson (ISS Expedition 5)

 

Duration 4 hr 25 min

 

The start of the EVA was delayed because a misconfigured oxygen valve in the spacesuits meant that the preparatory sequence had to be carried out twice. When they finally got outside, the astronauts installed six micrometeorite shields on the exterior of Zvezda, using the Strela boom to access the worksite. Due to the delay, the secondary tasks of retrieving samples from the Kromka deflector plate experiment and of thruster residue were postponed.

 

Korzun's third EVA; Whitson's first (she would go on to make ten in all).

 

 

2010 Douglas Wheelock & Tracy Caldwell-Dyson (ISS Expedition 24)

 

Duration 7 hr 20 min

 

With the assistance of Shannon Walker inside the Station, operating the manipulator arm, the astronauts completed the installation of the spare ammonia pump on the S1 Truss. As Walker held the pump in position, Wheelock secured its mounting bolts while Caldwell-Dyson hooked up its electrical cables. Once Mission Control had confirmed that everything was connected properly, they opened the ammonia valve to fill the pump.

 

Wheelock's sixth and last EVA: his career total amounts to 43 hr 30 min. Caldwell-Dyson's third and last: hers is 22 hr 49 min.

 

 

2013 Fyodor Yurchikhin & Aleksandr Misurkin (ISS Expedition 36)

 

Duration 7 hr 29 min

 

Misurkin operated the Strela boom to deliver Yurchikhin, carrying electrical cables, to the Zarya module where the cosmonaut rerouted a connector and installed the new power leads. Meanwhile Misurkin installed a new space exposure package to Poisk and fitted other pieces of equipment before joining Yurchikhin to assist with the cable work. They went back and forth between the two modules, fitting the cable and taking up the slack.

 

Yurchikhin's seventh EVA; Misurkin's second.

[GordonD]

17 AUGUST

 

2017 Fyodor Yurchikhin & Sergei Ryazansky (ISS Expedition 52)

 

Duration 7 hr 34 min

 

The cosmonauts manually deployed five nanosatellites. One of these had casings produced by 3-D printing technology, intended to test the effect of the low Earth orbit environment on such materials. A second carried recorded greetings to the people of Earth in eleven languages, while a third, named 'Zerkalo', was to commemorate both the 160th anniversary of the birth of Russian spaceflight pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the 60th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. The cosmonauts then cleaned the windows on the Russian modules, and installed exposure containers, fitted struts and handrails to Zvezda and Poisk, and conducted a photographic survey of the aft end of Zvezda and its antenna.

 

Ninth and last EVA for Yurchikhin, giving a total time of 59 hr 27 min. Fourth and last for Ryazansky: his career total is 27 hr 39 min.

[GordonD]

18 AUGUST

 

2001 Daniel Barry & Patrick Forrester (STS-105/ISS)

 

Duration 5 hr 29 min

 

The astronauts fitted handrails and laid two 14m heater cables down either side of the Destiny lab. These were a precautionary measure in case the S0 Truss, due for delivery the following year, could not be installed promptly and properly.

 

Fourth and last EVA for Barry, bringing his career total to 25 hr 49 min. Forrester's second EVA.

 

 

2005 Sergei Krikalev & John Phillips (ISS Expedition 11)

 

Duration 4 hr 58 min

 

The pair retrieved samples from various experiments, including a Biorisk bacteria canister, an orbital debris collector and a materials exposure panel, as well as an experiment consisting of radiation dosimeters in a material simulating human tissue. They also installed a television camera on Zvezda, for use in future commercial cargo missions. A further task, to relocate a grapple fixture from the Strela crane, was postponed to a later date.

 

Krikalev's eighth and last EVA (though his first in thirteen years), totalling 41 hr 8 min. The only EVA for Phillips.

 

 

2007 Dafydd Williams & Clayton Anderson (STS-118/ISS)

 

Duration 5 hr 2 min

 

The final EVA of the Shuttle mission involved the installation of the external wireless instrumentation system antenna and the retrieval of two sample containers. Original plans had also included the clean-up and securing of debris shields and the transfer of a toolbox to a more centralised point, but these were postponed.

 

Third and last EVA for Williams: his total amounts to 17 hr 47 min. Third EVA also for Anderson.

 

 

2014 Aleksandr Skvortsov & Oleg Artemyev (ISS Expedition 40)

 

Duration 5 hr 11 min

 

The cosmonauts deployed Chasqui 1, a Peruvian nanosatellite designed to take pictures of the Earth. They then installed the EXPOSE-R2 package, a suit of experiments designed by the European Space Agency including a study of extremophiles - biological organisms that can survive in extreme environmental conditions, which may help with strategies to detect life on Mars. The cosmonauts also attached a handrail clamp holder for the antenna set up during their previous EVA on 19 June. Finally they swapped out various space exposure packages and collected residue samples from one of Zvezda's windows.

 

Second and last EVA for Skvortsov, bringing his total to 12 hr 34 min. Also Artemyev's second.

 

 

[GordonD]

19 AUGUST

 

2016 Jeffrey Williams & Kate Rubins (ISS Expedition 48)

 

Duration 5 hr 58 min

 

The astronauts installed the first of two International Docking Adapters, which would be used by the commercial crew spacecraft. This had been delivered by an unmanned Dragon freighter and was extracted using the station's manipulator arm operated from the ground. Once it was in position, the securing latches were closed by Tayuka Onishi aboard the ISS, after which the EVA astronauts hooked up power and data lines.

 

Fourth EVA for Williams; the first for Rubins.

[GordonD]

20 AUGUST

 

2012 Gennadi Padalka & Yuri Malenchenko (ISS Expedition 32)

 

Duration 5 hr 51 min

 

Primary task was to move the Strela-2 crane from the Pirs module to Zarya. Though this was in preparation for the eventual undocking and disposal of Pirs to make room for a new Russian laboratory, the launch of the new module has been repeatedly postponed and at this date Pirs is still attached to the station and in use. The cosmonauts also installed micrometeoroid shields on the exterior of Zvezda and deployed a small science satellite.

 

Ninth EVA for Padalka; fifth for Malenchenko.

[GordonD]

21 AUGUST

 

2019 Nick Hague & Andrew Morgan (ISS Expedition 60)

 

Duration 6 hr 32 min

 

The astronauts installed the second of two International Docking Adapters, which would be used by the SpaceX and Boeing commercial crewed spacecraft then under development. They also completed additional routing for the station's wireless internet.

 

Third and last (to date) EVA for Hague, giving a total of 19 hr 56 min. First EVA for Morgan.

 

 

 

 

[GordonD]

22 AUGUST

 

1997 Anatoli Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov [IVA] (Mir Expedition 24)

 

Duration 3 hr 16 min

 

On 25 June the Progress M-34 freighter had collided with Mir's Spektr module during a manual docking attempt. The module had been severely damaged, leading to a pressure loss, but the crew had been able to seal it off and it was not necessary to abandon the station. Now the cosmonauts carried out a full internal survey to assess the damage. They were able to reroute the module's power cables, which they had been forced to disconnect so that the hatch could be closed, as well as retrieving US Mir resident Mike Foale's personal items and experimental materials. 

 

Solovyov's tenth EVA; Vinogradov's first.

 

 

2013 Fyodor Yurchikhin & Aleksandr Misurkin (ISS Expedition 36)

 

Duration 5 hr 58 min

 

The cosmonauts began by transporting an EVA workstation to its temporary location on Zvezda, from which they removed the External Onboard Laser Communications System that had been installed two years earlier. They then began to replace it with the platform for an optical camera system but noticed that its baseplate was not properly aligned. Mission Control told them to halt the installation and return the platform to the Pirs airlock, but engineers determined that the problem could be fixed after the plate was in place so the fitting went ahead as planned. The cameras themselves were due to be delivered by Progress freighter in December. The cosmonauts then inspected the rendezvous antenna used by ESA cargo craft, tightening screws on any loose covers that they found. One of the covers had become detached and drifted away a few days earlier: this was noticed by Chris Cassidy, who was able to capture it on video. Yurchikhin then installed some gap spanners to assist future spacewalkers in moving around the station, while Misurkin collected particulate samples from beneath thermal insulation blankets near the Poisk hatch. The cosmonauts had also been due to relocate a foot restraint from Zvezda to the new workstation but this was postponed due to time constraints.

 

Footage of the loose antenna cover

 

Eighth EVA for Yurchikhin; third for Misurkin

 

 

[GordonD]

23 AUGUST

 

No EVAs on this date.

[GordonD]

24 AUGUST

 

1973 Owen Garriott & Jack Lousma (Skylab 3)

 

Duration 4 hr 30 min

 

The astronauts changed all of the film cartridges on the Apollo Telescope Mount, a task which had been planned even before the Skylab Workshop was launched. However, they also installed a 7.3m cable for a new rate gyro package which had been set up inside the station, and attached a clipboard with two samples of parasol material to a handrail, and removed two more ramps from faulty ATM aperture doors.

 

Second EVA for both astronauts but the last one for Lousma, giving him a total of 11 hr 1 min.

[GordonD]

25 AUGUST

 

No EVAs on this date.