Spacewalk – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

Russian spacewalkers cut into Soyuz spaceship to inspect leak repair

December 11, 2018

Clad in pressurized spacesuits, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev used knives and scissors to slice through insulation and a debris shield on a Soyuz spaceship set to return to Earth next week, finally reaching the capsule’s metallic hull to examine the site of an air leak plugged in August.

Spacewalkers toss nanosatellites into orbit, hook up bird migration monitor

August 15, 2018

Clad in pressurized spacesuits, two Russian cosmonauts headed outside the International Space Station on Wednesday and hand-released four tiny CubeSats and installed hardware for a German experiment to track animal migration.

Station astronauts install new cameras on successful spacewalk

June 14, 2018

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station Thursday and installed two new cameras on the front of the lab complex that will provide views of commercial crew ships during final approach and docking. The spacewalkers also replaced a faulty high-definition camera and closed a door that was jammed open on an external instrument.

Astronauts reposition space station cooling pumps on successful spacewalk

May 16, 2018

Two astronauts worked outside the International Space Station Wednesday to reposition two spare solar array ammonia coolant pump assemblies, putting a failed unit, dubbed “Leaky,” into long-term storage and attaching another, known as “Frosty,” to an appendage of the lab’s robot arm.

Spacewalkers accomplish all objectives in six-hour excursion

March 29, 2018

Two newly arrived space station astronauts, both veteran spacewalkers, suited up and ventured outside the lab complex Thursday to install additional wireless communications gear, to replace a balky camera and its pan-and-tilt mechanism and to remove two suspect hoses in the station’s ammonia coolant system.

Spacewalking astronauts complete robot arm work

February 16, 2018

Astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Japanese crewmate Norishige Kanai floated outside the International Space Station Friday, repositioned two robot arm grapple mechanisms following repair work last month and carried out a variety of “get-ahead” tasks before calling it a day.

Cosmonauts upgrade station high-gain antenna on record-breaking spacewalk

February 2, 2018

Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shkaplerov floated outside the International Space Station on Friday and installed an upgraded electronics box on a high-gain communications antenna at the aft end of the Zvezda service module.

Software patch fixes station robot arm; Monday spacewalk repair called off

January 28, 2018

A corrective software patch has fixed a problem with a newly installed grapple fixture on one end of the International Space Station robot arm, NASA officials said Sunday. With the mechanism now fully operational, a re-planned spacewalk Monday to re-install a degraded unit has been called off.

Newly installed space station robot arm grapple fixture not operating properly

January 26, 2018

The grapple mechanism installed on one end of the space station’s robot arm during a spacewalk Tuesday is experiencing problems. It will be removed during a re-planned spacewalk Monday and the original fitting will be re-installed, NASA said Friday.

Spacewalkers complete repairs to station robotic arm

January 23, 2018

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station early Tuesday and replaced one of the grapple fixtures on the end of the lab’s robot arm, the first of two excursions over the next week to complete a complex overhaul that began with a pair of spacewalks last October.