NASA's spacewalks, on the ISS, Jan 6 and Jan 13

[Stavros Kiri]

Tomorrow Fri Jan 13 the second part of the mission to replace the batteries, the second recent spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS). Last week commander Shane Kimbrough and flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA. This week commander Kimbrough and Thomas Pesqet of ESA (European Space Agency) will actually complete the installation of the new batteries.

Besides discussing the spacewalks, purpose of this thread is to also emphasize the existence and role of the ISS, that passes above our heads every 90min, without us even knowing.

All interested, even experts etc. please join in.

To follow the news and events check out NASA TV, ISS apps, etc. and/or: www.nasa.gov/station

 

[Stavros Kiri]

The space walk is already on and being broadcast by NASA TV. Also you can go through the link above for live-streaming etc..

Started approx.* 7:05am ET and will last almost 6 1/2 hrs.

If you don't have a NASA TV app you can view directly at:

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public

(It takes only 1 click)

* Actually that was the scheduled time. It must have started at least half an hour earlier, bringing them ahead of schedule.
Broadcast on NASA TV started 5:30am ET. Perhaps, also, one may find videos later (e.g. with the astronauts prep. etc.), as well as from last week.

 

[mfb]

Direct link to the livestream

7:05 am ET was 1 hour ago, so you can compare the current time to the time of this post if you don't want to convert time zones manually.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

Direct link to the livestream

7:05 am ET was 1 hour ago, so you can compare the current time to the time of this post if you don't want to convert time zones manually.

Actually precisely 1hr and 6min "ago" compared to mfb's post ...

 

[Stavros Kiri]

Looks like they started the space walk 6:23am ET, so exactly 42min ahead of schedule.

At about 4hrs 30' of space walk they finished mounting and installing the new Lithium ion batteries (that replaced the old Nickel-hydrogen batteries). Since then they are wrapping up, gathering their equipment to return to airlock (also ahead of the 6 1/2 hrs limit schedule).

Now (before editting) 4hrs 46' in the space walk.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

On 5 hrs 26' they are now entering the airlock (just about ...)

 

[Stavros Kiri]

The space walk ended a few minutes ago, 5hrs 58min elapsed time. Everything was a success. They are about to be led out of their suits as we speak.
[Edit: before broadcast [just] ended (~12:55pm ET), they summarized the time frame as 6:22am-12:20pm ET for the actual mission time (5hrs 58min). Congratulations to the astronauts! They had a long and difficult day! They can now scratch their heads after about 7 hrs! ...]
Later on I will summarize useful information about those two missions, as well as the space station (ISS). Feel free to join in for discussion.

 

[1oldman2]

The Astronauts on this EVA should get a production bonus, I can't remember the last time all the "get ahead" work was completed along with the primary tasks.
Here are some highlights for anyone that didn't catch the show.

http://www.astrowatch.net/2017/01/astronauts-breeze-through-spacewalk.html
In the second of two planned spacewalks to upgrade the International Space Station’s (ISS) power system, two astronauts finished the process of replacing 12 nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion units. The spacewalking duo worked so fast, they had time to complete all of the assigned get-ahead tasks.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

I was going to summarize, but this is better:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2017/01/13/second-spacewalk-of-2017-successfully-complete/

+ About the space station (ISS = International Space Station): It's been around (in orbit) 18+ years (the moment I write this its clock measures: 6631days 21hrs 47'). It passes above our heads almost every 90', on aporox. 250miles (ave)* above ground, about 16 times a day, running with a speed of 17,000miles/hr.

* to be precise: varies bet. 205 and 270 miles (330-435 km).
15.54 orbits per day
Orbital period: 92.65min
Orbital speed: 7.67km/sec (27,600 km/hr i.e. 17,200mph).
Launched 20 Nov. 1998
Orbital decay** 2km/month
Fully crewed: 6
Currently aboard: 6 (Expedition 50)
ISS is the 9th space station to be inhabited by crews.

** orbit maintained at that altitude with the use of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft .

I edited useful information on the previous post above.
Also worth mentioning that they also used robotics (and within the week, between the two missions), to e.g. carry the batteries and adapter plates in place, as well as to get rid of the old ones.
This thread is co-relevant with mechanical engineering (prefix: aerospace). A lot of machinery up there! ...

The Astronauts on this EVA should get a production bonus, I can't remember the last time all the "get ahead" work was completed along with the primary tasks.

Very true!
BTW "EVA" = ExtraVehicular Activities ...

+ I will add more useful info about the Space Station (ISS = International Space Station) and its role later (so stick around or join in ...)

 

[Stavros Kiri]

I edited useful information on the previous post above.

Two posts combined in one by a mentor (back at that time). I may continue this on a separate thread about ISS later ...

 

[Stavros Kiri]

+ I will add more useful info about the Space Station (ISS = International Space Station) and its role later (so stick around or join in ...)

Here's a nice informative video for a start: