NASA TV to Air US Spacewalk, Briefing on Space Station Docking Port Install
NASA astronauts Christina Koch (center top) and Nick Hague (suit with red stripe on legs) conduct a spacewalk March 29 to swap batteries and install adapter plates on the International Space Station's Port-4 truss structure.
Credits: NASA
Experts from NASA will preview an upcoming spacewalk with two American astronauts outside the International Space Station to complete the outfitting of docking ports during a briefing at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 16, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Live coverage of the briefing will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
Media wishing to participate in the briefing in person must request credentials from the Johnson newsroom no later than 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15. Media interested in participating by phone must contact the newsroom by 1:45 p.m. Aug. 16.
Participants in the briefing are:
Kirk Shireman, International Space Station program manager
Scott Stover, NASA spacewalk flight director
Alex Kanelakos, lead spacewalk officer
Expedition 60 Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan of NASA will begin their planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk from inside the Quest airlock about 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21. Live NASA Television coverage will begin at 6:30 a.m. The duo will assist in the installation of International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) to Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 on the space-facing side of the station’s Harmony module.
IDA-3 will provide a second docking port to the International Space Station to accommodate the future arrivals of Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon commercial crew spacecraft. The docking port was launched to the station last month on a SpaceX Dragon on the company’s 18th commercial cargo resupply services mission to the station. IDA-2 was installed to the forward end of the Harmony module in the summer of 2016.
NASA’s commercial crew partnership with Boeing and SpaceX will restore launches of American astronauts from American soil on American rockets and maximize the time U.S. crews can dedicate to scientific research and technological advances aboard the orbiting laboratory to enable the agency’s ambitious goals for the Artemis lunar exploration program and future missions to the Moon and Mars.
The spacewalkers also will install a new high definition television camera on the station’s starboard truss as part of an ongoing upgrade of the station’s external cameras.
Hague will be extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) wearing the spacesuit with the red stripes, and Morgan will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2) wearing the suit with no stripes.
The spacewalk will be the 218th in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades and the fifth outside the station this year. It will be the third spacewalk for Hague and the first for Morgan.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 19.08.2019
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Robotics Work Prepping Docking Port Ahead of Wednesday’s Spacewalk
NASA astronaut Nick Hague takes an out-of-this-world “space-selfie” during a spacewalk on March 22, 2019.
Robotics controllers are preparing a new commercial crew docking port for installation during a spacewalk on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Expedition 60 crew is researching life science and physics while packing a cargo ship for return to Earth next week.
The Canadarm2 robotic arm will extract the International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) from the trunk of the Space Dragon cargo craft during the crew’s sleep shift tonight. Ground controllers will remotely position the IDA-3 on top of the Harmony module where it will soon become a permanent part of the orbiting lab.
Spacewalkers Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan will exit the station Wednesday about 8:20 a.m. EDT to finish the IDA-3 installation job. The duo will work outside Harmony for about six and a half hours routing cables and configuring the IDA-3 in preparation for the arrival of future SpaceX and Boeing crew vehicles. See an animation of their planned activities.
Hague had time on Monday afternoon to research ways to improve tire manufacturing and performance on Earth. Morgan and NASA astronaut Christina Koch were packing Dragon and readying the space freighter for its return to Earth on Aug. 27.
Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) spent the day on a variety of life science studies. He first collected his blood and urine samples for analysis, and then he tested his blood sugar for the Vascular Aging study observing cardiovascular health and insulin resistance in space. Finally, he spun cell culture samples in a centrifuge for the Micro-15 study investigating cell differentiation.
The two cosmonauts, Alexey Ovchinin and Alexander Skvortsov, kept up the Russian segment of the orbiting lab today. Commander Ovchinin checked out a treadmill in the Zvezda service module before gathering items for return to Earth on a Soyuz spaceship. Flight Engineer Skvortsov is recording his heart activity for the next 24 hours while also maintaining Russian life support hardware.
Russia’s Soyuz MS-14 crew ship has rolled out to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today. It will launch Wednesday with no crew onboard at 11:38 p.m. EDT to test its 2.1a booster segment during ascent. The unpiloted Soyuz spacecraft will automatically dock Saturday at 1:30 a.m. to the station’s Poisk module.
