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Sticky switch to blame for spacewalk abort BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 25, 2004 Russian engineers believe a balky switch in astronaut Mike Fincke's Orlan spacesuit was to blame for what appeared to be an oxygen leak that derailed a spacewalk Thursday evening aboard the international space station. Fincke and station commander Gennady Padalka tentatively plan to make another attempt to stage the six-hour excursion the night of June 29, one day before NASA's $3.3 billion Cassini probe brakes into orbit around Saturn. Padalka and Fincke opened the station's Pirs airlock module hatch Thursday at 5:56 p.m. EDT (2156 GMT). But within minutes, Russian flight controllers noticed an apparent drop in pressure in the primary oxygen tank in Fincke's suit. He and Padalka were quickly ordered back inside and the spacewalk ended just 14 minutes and 22 seconds after it began, giving Fincke an unenviable record: The shortest spacewalk in U.S. history. After troubleshooting, engineers concluded the problem likely was caused by a small handle Fincke repositioned as part of a standard pre-spacewalk procedure to test the suit's ability to deliver increased oxygen flow if required. When he reset the handle, a light indicated the oxygen flow was back at the normal level. But the switch apparently hung up slightly and oxygen continued flowing out of the primary tank at a higher-than-normal rate. Russian flight controllers believe the suit is in good health and that Fincke can use it next week. New procedures are being developed to help the spacewalkers confirm the proper oxygen setting. A mission management team meeting is scheduled for Monday to finalize the target date and to review resolution of the suit problem. The goal of the spacewalk is to replace a circuit breaker that failed April 21, shutting down one of the station's stabilizing gyroscopes. One of the station's four control moment gyros failed in 2002 and with the April shutdown of CMG-2, only two gyros are currently operational. Station managers want to get CMG-2 spun up and back on line as soon as possible to provide redundancy in case of additional failures down the road. As it now stands, an additional failure would leave the station with just one operational gyro, forcing the crew to burn valuable rocket fuel to maintain the proper orientation.
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International Space Station officials preview the upcoming Expedition 9 spacewalk to replace a faulty power control box that supports one of the U.S. control moment gyros. (66min 08sec file)
The Expedition 9 crew describes their upcoming spacewalk in Russian spacesuits, life aboard the space station and the view of Earth in this interview with Bill Harwood of CBS News. (20min 19sec file)
The Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft carrying the Expedition 9 crew docks to the space station's Zarya control module as seen by a video camera on the capsule. (4min 40sec file)
The elbow camera on the space station's robotic arm provides this view of the Soyuz capsule's docking to the Zarya module. (2min 45sec file)
The next space station crew is safely launched aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome. (3min 32sec file)