EVAs in November

[GordonD]

26 NOVEMBER

 

2002 Michael Lopez-Alegria & John Herrington (STS-113/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 45 min

 

The astronauts connected power cables and fluid lines to the newly-installed P1 Truss, then installed Spool Positioning Devices. They then disengaged launch locks securing the CETA cart in the Orbiter's cargo bay, ready for its transfer on the next EVA. Finally, they mounted a video transceiver antenna which would allow reception of images from spacewalkers' helmets without the need for a docked Shuttle to act as a relay.

 

Third EVA for Lopez-Alegria; Herrington's first.

[GordonD]

27 NOVEMBER

 

No EVAs on this date.

[GordonD]

28 NOVEMBER

 

2002 Michael Lopez-Alegria & John Herrington (STS-113/ISS)

 

Duration 6 hr 10 min

 

There was no Thanksgiving holiday for the astronauts as they continued work on the installation of the P1 Truss, hooking up two fluid jumpers that would link the Station's cooling system to the new component. They then fitted the keel pin and mounted an antenna, before removing the launch locks on the truss's radiator beams. Herrington then rode the manipulator arm to transfer the CETA-B cart to the S1 Truss, where he attached it to its sister cart. This would clear the way for the Mobile Transporter, carrying the arm, to move along the P1 Truss to assist in upcoming assembly missions. Finally, they rewired the antenna they had fitted two days earlier.

 

Fourth EVA for Lopez-Alegria; the second for Herrington.

[GordonD]

29 NOVEMBER

 

1985 Jerry Ross & Sherwood Spring (STS-61B)

 

Duration 5 hr 32 min

 

This EVA saw the astronauts practicing on-orbit assembly techniques that might one day be used in the construction of a space station. All of the procedures they carried out had been rehearsed in the neutral buoyancy tank and timed to determine how accurate and useful such training was. The astronauts first put together the pieces of a truss named Assembly Concept for Construction of Erectable Space Structures (ACCESS), forming a beam 3.4 metres high. This had taken 58 minutes in the water tank but the astronauts had been allocated two hours; however, they managed it in just 55 minutes so took it apart and built it again. Next, they linked together beams weighing 29 kg on Earth to form a 3.6 metre tetrahedron, in a task called Experimental Assembly of Structures through EVA (EASE). Again, the work went faster than anticipated and they were able to put the pyramid together eight times instead of the planned six. During the first four assemblies, the astronauts used foot restraints to assess how useful these were. At the end of the EVA, Spring assembled and deployed a small satellite to be used as a station-keeping target  for the Orbiter as it carried out rendezvous software tests.

 

First EVA for both astronauts.

 

 

1996 Tammy Jernigan & Tom Jones [IVA] (STS-80) 

 

Duration 1 hr 52 min (EVA abandoned)

 

Two EVAs were planned for this mission, each to last around six hours, during which the astronauts would have evaluated equipment and procedures to be used during construction and maintenance of the International Space Station. These would have included an end-to-end demonstration of a maintenance task simulating the changing out of an ISS battery, using a crane similar to the one that would ultimately be attached to the station. They would also test body restraint tethers and other work aids including a new type of power tool. However, all of this had to be called off because the outer airlock hatch jammed and could not be opened despite all of the astronauts' efforts. After nearly two hours, Mission Control ordered them to abandon the EVA and the one planned for two days later was cancelled outright.

 

Note that according to NASA's definition, this does not count as an EVA as the astronauts did not leave the spacecraft. However, given that they were preparing to carry out a full programme of activities and were prevented from doing so only by the stuck hatch (as opposed to, say, the Command Pilot on a Gemini mission who while his colleague was performing an EVA was never intended to leave the capsule himself) it has been included here,

 

First EVA for both astronauts.

[GordonD]

30 NOVEMBER

 

2002 Michael Lopez-Alegria & John Herrington (STS-113/ISS)

 

Duration 7 hr

 

Herrington began by examining the CETA cart to determine why it had stopped short of its intended destination and found that a trailing cable had snagged on a stowed UHF antenna. He deployed the antenna and freed the cable, allowing the cart to reach its worksite. It had been intended to serve as the base platform for the manipulator arm to assist Herrington in his tasks during this EVA, but he advised Mission Control that he could manage without it. The ground controllers had been considering delaying some of the less-critical jobs until a future EVA but in the end the astronauts were able to complete all of them as planned. These included the installation of thirty-three Spool Positioning Devices, the reconfiguration of electrical harnesses which route power through the Main Bus Switching Unit and the connection of ammonia tank assembly lines.

 

Fifth EVA for Lopez-Alegria; third and last for Herrington. His career total amounts to 19 hr 55 min.