US Spacewalkers Feustel and Arnold complete EVA double

Expedition 55 Flight Engineers Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold stepped outside of the International Space Station for the second of two related EVAs, completing the primary objectives of upgrading cooling system hardware and installing new and updated communications equipment for future dockings of commercial crew spacecraft. The first spacewalk (EVA-50) was completed last month ahead of the second on June 14, both of which were incident free and fully successful.

EVA-50:

These two spacewalks were the eighth and ninth of Feustel’s career, and the fourth and fifth of Arnold’s,  for what was the 210th and 211th spacewalks in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades.

Feustel moved into third place during the second EVA, in the all time EVA spacewalk duration table.

US EVA-50 began with NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold leaving the Quest airlock.

The major task of EVA-50 was the relocation of two Pump Flow Control Subassembly (PFCS) units. A PFCS is a component of the Photo Voltaic Thermal Control System (PVTCS), which provides ammonia cooling to the power generation equipment of the station’s solar arrays.

Specifically, the PFCS pumps the ammonia around each of the eight power channels, two of which are found on each of the station’s four solar arrays (making for eight operational PFCS units on the ISS in total).

Back in May 2013, the channel 2B PFCS failed following an ammonia leak, which required an EVA to replace the unit with a spare. The failed PFCS, known as “leaky”, has since been stowed on the P6 Truss.

However, flight controllers would now like to move that failed PFCS to a stowage location on External Stowage Platform-1 (ESP-1), and in turn move a spare PFCS (named “frosty”) that currently resides on ESP-1 to the P6 Truss, in order for it to be more accessible should it ever be needed for a future replacement operation.

Names of the Pump Flow Control Subassembly.

These PFCS relocations are not to be confused with the spare PFCS (named “motley”) which was recently delivered to the ISS on a SpaceX Dragon flight, and an electrically failed PFCS (named “trippy”) which was disposed of via that same flight.

The Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM) “Dextre” conducted preparations for the EVA last week by removing the failed “leaky” PFCS from the P6 Truss and stowing it on its Enhanced ORU Temporary Platform (EOTP).

As such, the spacewalkers simply needed to remove the spare “frosty” PFCS from ESP-1 and install it onto the EOTP, whilst also removing the “leaky” PFCS from the EOTP and installing it onto ESP-1. This was completed without issue. The SPDM will later install the “frosty” PFCS onto its new stowage location on the P6 Truss.

Dextre supporting the EVA

The next major task of the EVA was to replace the Camera Port-13 (CP-13) External Television Camera Group (ETVCG) on the Destiny Laboratory. This piece of hardware consists of a stanchion with attached Camera Light Pan/tilt Assembly (CLPA).

However, whilst the current assembly also consists of an External High Definition Camera (EHDC) which is attached to the CLPA, the replacement assembly will not, as astronauts preparing the replacement assembly inside the ISS were unable to mate the EHDC to its attachment mount.

The last major task of the EVA was the replacement of the Space to Ground Transmit/Receive Controller (SGTRC) on one of the station’s two Ku-band Space to Ground Antennas (SGANTs) atop the Z1 Truss. As its name implies, the SGTRC controls the transmit/receive functions of the SGANT.

With all the primary – and even the small list of get ahead – tasks completed, the EVA was a complete success and completed on time as two spacewalkers re-entered the airlock to conclude the spacewalk.

No tasks were deferred to the next EVA.

EVA-51:

During this next spacewalk, Arnold and Feustel were tasked with installing a pair of brackets and high-definition cameras on the Harmony module that will help commercial crew vehicles align with the international docking adapter at the forward end of Harmony.

Unlike the current commercial vehicles, used for cargo runs to the ISS and are berthed via being captured by the Station’s robotic arm, the commercial crew vehicles will dock at one of two specialist ports on Harmony.

All three vehicles at Node 2, as envisioned by Nathan Koga for NSF/L2

Node 2 has the potential to host all three of the new commercial vehicles, namely Dragon 2, Starliner and SNC’s Cargo Dream Chaser, the latter of which will be joining the cargo runs during the CRS2 phase of NASA’s resupply manifest.

The cameras also will provide wireless data network access for experiments and facilities mounted on the ESA (European Space Agency) Columbus laboratory and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Kibo laboratory.

The crew also replaced a camera on the station’s starboard truss and closed an aperture door on an external environmental imaging experiment (CATS) outside the Kibo module.

With all the primary tasks completed, the spacewalkers moved into get ahead tasks.

EVA-51 overview via NASA

The first was the installation of a grapple bar that will aid future spacewalks. A wire-tie task was also completed, per the ELC-2 get-ahead, before the duo returned to Quest.

Following the EVA, robotic assets will start to prepare for two upcoming commercial vehicle events, Cygnus OA-9’s departure and the arrival of SpaceX’s CRS-15 Dragon spacecraft.

The latter is currently scheduled to launch from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral at the end of this month.

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