Cosmonauts Wrap Up Russian Spacewalk for Science Work

Cosmonauts Wrap Up Russian Spacewalk for Science Work

Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev
Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev hand-deploys a SiriusSat nano-satellite into Earth orbit while tethered to the Pirs airlock on the International Space Station

Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos have completed a spacewalk lasting 7 hours and 46 minutes.

The two cosmonauts opened the hatch to the Pirs docking compartment to begin the spacewalk at 12:17 p.m. EDT. They re-entered the airlock and closed the hatch at 8:03 p.m. EDT.

During the spacewalk, the duo manually launched four small technology satellites and installed an experiment called Icarus onto the Russian segment of the space station.

It was the 212th spacewalk in support of International Space Station assembly, maintenance and upgrades, the third in Artemyev’s career and the first for Prokopyev.

Learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

ISS

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Cosmonauts Working Outside Station for Russian Spacewalk

Cosmonauts Working Outside Station for Russian Spacewalk

Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev
Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev are conducting the 7th spacewalk of the year at the International Space Station today.

Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos began a spacewalk when they opened the hatch of the Pirs docking compartment of the International Space Station at 12:17 p.m. EDT.

Artemyev will be designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) for the spacewalk wearing the Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes. Prokopyev will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2) wearing the Russian Orlan spacesuit with blue stripes.

Coverage of the spacewalk continues on NASA Television and the agency’s website. Views from a camera on Artemyev’s helmet are designated with the number 20, and Prokopyev’s is labeled with the number 18.

Learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

ISS

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Watch Russian Spacewalk Broadcast Live on NASA TV

Watch Russian Spacewalk Broadcast Live on NASA TV

 

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev works outside the International Space Station during a 5-hour, 11-minute spacewalk that took place Aug. 18, 2014, when he was an Expedition 40 Flight Engineer.

Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos are preparing for their exit from the station’s Pirs docking compartment airlock at approximately 11:58 a.m. EDT. The spacewalk is planned to last about six hours outside of the International Space Station‘s Russian segment.

The primary objectives during the spacewalk will be to manually launch four small technology satellites, retrieve material science samples from the hull of the Zvezda service module, and install an experiment called Icarus onto the Russian segment of the space station.

Icarus is a collaborative environmental experiment between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Roscosmos to study the migratory patterns of small animals on Earth. It consists of an antenna and GPS hardware to track the movements of animals that have been tagged with small GPS receivers. The experiment may provide data about how animals move from one location to another, how animal population density shifts over time, and how diseases spread.

Coverage of the spacewalk is now underway on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

ISS

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Crew Preps for Russian, U.S. Spacewalks While Juggling Space Research

Crew Preps for Russian, U.S. Spacewalks While Juggling Space Research

Russian Orlan spacesuit
A Russian Orlan spacesuit is pictured inside the Pirs airlock where Russian spacewalks are staged.

The Expedition 56 crew is getting ready for a spacewalk Wednesday outside the International Space Station’s Russian segment. Meanwhile, the orbital residents continued apace with space science and preparation for a pair of September spacewalks.

Two cosmonauts will suit up inside their Orlan spacesuits and exit the Pirs airlock Wednesday at 11:58 a.m. EDT for about six hours of science and maintenance work. Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev will toss four tiny satellites into space, install antennas and cables for the Icarus animal-tracking experiment and collect exposed science experiments.

NASA astronauts Drew Feustel, Ricky Arnold and Serena Auñón-Chancellor assisted the cosmonauts throughout Tuesday and reviewed their roles for tomorrow’s spacewalk. NASA TV begins its live spacewalk coverage Wednesday at 11:15 a.m.

Arnold started his morning replacing gear inside the Combustion Integrated Rack then ended his day with plumbing duty on the Water Processing Assembly. Auñón-Chancellor checked on mice being observed for the Rodent Research-7 study that observes how internal microbes impact organisms living in space.

Finally, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst spent the afternoon working on U.S. spacesuits. He, Feustel and Arnold are gearing up for two spacewalks at the end of September to replace batteries on the Port 4 truss structure’s power channels.


Get weekly video highlights at: http://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/ 

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Mark Garcia

ISS

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Station Gears Up for Spacewalk During Advanced Science Work

Station Gears Up for Spacewalk During Advanced Science Work

Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold
Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold inspects U.S. spacesuits and tethers in the Quest airlock ahead of a pair of U.S. spacewalks currently planned for September.

Two Expedition 56 cosmonauts packed a Russian resupply ship today before preparing for Wednesday’s spacewalk. The other four International Space Station crew members worked on a variety of space science experiments and lab maintenance duties.

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev are loading a Progress 69 (69P) cargo craft with trash ahead of its departure next week. The 69P delivered over three tons of food, fuel and supplies in February. The spacecraft will undock on Aug. 22 for a fiery disposal over the Pacific Ocean one week later after a series of engineering tests.

The cosmonauts then turned their attention to Wednesday’s spacewalk when they will hand-deploy four tiny satellites, install antennas and cables and collect exposed science experiments. They continued setting up their spacewalking gear inside the Pirs airlock today. They will exit Pirs Wednesday at 11:58 a.m. EDT for about six hours of work outside the station’s Russian segment inside their Orlan spacesuits. NASA TV’s live coverage of the spacewalk begins at 11:15 a.m.

Commander Drew Feustel and Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor performed the majority of the science work today onboard the orbital complex. Feustel explored how proteins crystallize and grow in microgravity to help scientists develop safer, more advanced drug therapies on Earth. Auñón-Chancellor started her day with a blood draw before researching radio spectrum usage in space which may benefit satellite communications. Finally, she studied the sedimentation of quartz and clay particles possibly assisting future planetary exploration missions and the petroleum industry on Earth.

Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold spent some time inspecting U.S. spacesuit lights and replacing fan filters before assisting Feustel with the protein crystal growth experiment. Alexander Gerst of ESA checked out U.S. spacesuit batteries then moved on to verifying the functionality of fire extinguishers and breathing masks.

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Mark Garcia

ISS

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