Cosmonauts complete Russian spacewalk to integrate Prichal node

by Pete Harding

Two Russian cosmonauts have conducted a spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS) to fully configure and integrate the outpost’s newest module to support future operations. 

The two spacewalkers, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, began their work at 12:17:31 UTC and concluded the EVA seven hours 11 minutes later at 19:28 UTC.

Spacewalk procedures

Russian EVA-51 was performed by cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov, wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits. Both had conducted Extravehicular Activities (EVAs, or spacewalks) before, and Dubrov wore the suit with the blue stripes while Shkaplerov wore the suit with the red stripes.

The main tasks for today’s EVA revolved around readying the new Node Module, Prichal, to support future dockings by Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, including installation of hardware to allow for automated rendezvous and dockings.

To help effect this, several now-unneeded items from Prichal’s rendezvous and docking with the ISS in November 2021 were removed or repurposed.

 

The first task for the duo after exiting the Mini Research Module-2 (MRM-2), also named Poisk, airlock was to set up a manually operated Strela crane. This telescopic crane, which is mounted to the outside of Poisk, was extended down to the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), named Nauka.

Nauka arrived at the ISS in July 2021 after an eventful post-launch period in orbit.

For today’s EVA, Dubrov and Shkaplerov secured the other end of the Strela crane to a handrail on Nauka. Strela then essentially acted as a very long handrail, or bridge, between Poisk and Nauka, allowing cosmonauts to transit between the two modules more quickly.

After securing Strela, cosmonauts then transfered equipment to the worksite at the junction between Nauka and the newly arrived Prichal, which was the focus area for today’s activities.

Shkaplerov and Dubrov then removed thermal covers from several handrails and tether points, following which they installed the first of two short-cuts between handrails to afford future spacewalkers better translation options between areas on the outside of Nauka and Prichal.

Next on the schedule was the installation of several cables for the automated Kurs rendezvous system that need to be properly routed between Nauka and Prichal now that both modules are safely together at the ISS.

Following this, a new series of rendezvous antennas were installed onto Prichal to allow approaching spacecraft to automatically guide themselves to the docking port via positioning, range, and rate information.

A TV camera was then moved to a new location on Prichal. This operation involved demating and re-mating several cables between Nauka and Prichal.

The camera was previously used to provide video during Prichal’s rendezvous and docking with Nauka; it will now be used to provide video of spacecraft approaching Prichal for docking.

A docking target cross was also installed onto Prichal during Russian EVA-51 to allow future approaching vehicles to properly align with Prichal’s nadir docking port via their onboard TV cameras.

Credit: NASA

After this, Shkaplerov took time to gather an antenna and two empty containers of trash to jettison them overboard to eventually burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

Disposing of large pieces of equipment overboard of the Station, equipment that is too large to be brought back inside the International Space Station for a destructive return to Earth in an uncrewed resupply craft, is a common practice.

Debris jettisoned from the ISS is large enough to be tracked and monitored to ensure it does not pose a risk to other vehicles in orbit during its passive orbital decay period before reentry.

Following this activity, a now-unneeded floodlight used during Prichal’s rendezvous to provide adequate lighting so the node’s cameras could properly see the docking target was removed.

After the installation of a second short-cut between handrails, three unneeded rendezvous antennas were then taken off Prichal. These antennas are no longer required now that Prichal is permanently docked to Nauka.

The three antennas were then jettisoned overboard.

This concluded the EVA’s primary tasks, allowing Dubrov and Shkaplerov to clean up their work areas and translate to the Poisk airlock.

With the spacewalk complete, Prichal is now ready to support dockings to its nadir port, the first of which is scheduled for March 18 with Soyuz MS-21.

Russian EVA-51 was part of a series of approximately six spacewalks over 2022 to fully integrate Nauka into the ISS. Additional Russian EVAs — beginning in April — will see the commissioning of Nauka’s European Robotic Arm (ERA), which will include the installation of an external control panel to allow cosmonauts to manually operate the arm.

(Lead image: Prichal, right, after its modified Progress propulsion module departed in December 2021. Credit: Roscosmos/NASA)

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