|
|
|
|
|
Station spacewalk expected to slip to Wednesday BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 28, 2004 A critical space station repair spacewalk that was aborted last week due to a spacesuit problem is expected to slip from Tuesday to Wednesday night, officials said today. The schedule shift, if approved Tuesday by NASA's mission management team, means the spacewalk would be underway at the same time NASA's $3.3 billion Cassini probe is braking into orbit around Saturn. Pending final approval, station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mike Fincke plan to open the Pirs airlock module's hatch around 5:40 p.m. Wednesday to officially begin a planned six-hour excursion. Four hours later and 930 million miles away, Cassini's main engine will fire up for a make-or-break 96-minute burn to put the craft in orbit around Saturn. The scheduling conflict has forced NASA to scramble a bit to ensure both events can be televised live. A NASA producer said today if the revised schedule holds up, Cassini commentary, the braking maneuver and a post-orbit-insertion news conference would be carried live on NASA's normal satellite television channel, the one carried by many cable television companies: AMC 9, transponder 9. The spacewalk would be carried on AMC 9, transponder 5. The goal of the EVA is to replace a circuit breaker that failed April 21, shutting down control moment gyroscope No. 2, one of four gyros used to stabilize and re-orient the station. With CMG-1 already out of action due to an earlier problem, 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. Wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits, Padalka and Fincke began a repair spacewalk last Thursday, but they were forced to call it off after just 14 minutes when Russian engineers noticed a pressure drop in Fincke's primary oxygen tank. 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 new procedures have been developed to help the spacewalkers confirm the proper oxygen setting.
|
|
|
|
Expedition 20 The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 20 crew is now available from our stores. U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STORE STS-128 patch  The official embroidered patch for shuttle Discovery's flight to deliver equipment and research gear to the space station.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STORE Hubble Patch  The official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STORENew DVD! One Giant Leap 
Hosted by Corbin Bernsen, this award winning documentary marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. space agency and features exclusive interviews with veteran astronauts.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREGemini 12  Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program's efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Columbia Report  A reproduction of the official accident investigation report into the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven. Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Mars Panorama  DISCOUNTED! This 360 degree image was taken by the Mars Pathfinder, which landed on the Red Planet in July 1997. The Sojourner Rover is visible in the image. Choose your store:U.S. Apollo 11 Mission Report  Apollo 11 - The NASA Mission Reports Vol. 3 is the first comprehensive study of man's first mission to another world is revealed in all of its startling complexity. Includes DVD!Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Rocket DVD  If you've ever watched a launch from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg Air Force Base or even Kodiak Island Alaska, there's no better way to describe what you witnessed than with this DVD.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
INDEX | PLUS | NEWS ARCHIVE | LAUNCH SCHEDULE ASTRONOMY NOW | STORE ADVERTISE © 2009 Spaceflight Now Inc. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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)