Spacewalk shortened after airlock problemsBy/ William Harwood/ CBS News/ May 12, 2017, 10:11 AM
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet helps Jack Fischer, left, with his spacesuit while station commander Peggy Whitson, right, looks on. Problems with an airlock umbilical that caused Fischer and Whitson to use batter power before exiting the airlock forced mission managers to shorten a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk. / NASARookie space station flier Jack Fischer and commander Peggy Whitson kicked off a shortened spacewalk Friday to install a replacement avionics unit on an external storage platform. A variety of other tasks were deleted because of problems that used up spacesuit battery power before the crew exited the airlock.
Running more than an hour behind schedule, U.S. EVA-42 began at 9:08 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). Whitson, making her ninth spacewalk, and Fischer, making his first, opened the hatch a few moments later and then floated outside to begin an expected four-hour excursion.
"Oh my gosh, this is beautiful!" Fisher exclaimed, taking in the view from 250 miles up.
"Isn't it?" Whitson replied.
"The biggest slice of awesome pie I've ever seen," said Fischer, using one of his favorite expressions to describe the scene.
"No 'awesome sauce?'" Whitson teased.
"An enormous fondue pot bubbling over with piping hot awesome sauce!" Fischer replied with his usual enthusiasm.
For identification, Whitson, call sign EV-1, is wearing a suit with red stripes and is using helmet camera 18. Fischer, EV-2, is wearing an unmarked suit and is using helmet cam 20.
Astronaut Jack Fischer, left, and space station commander Peggy Whitson, wearing a suit with red stripes, float outside the Quest airlock at the start of a shortened spacewalk Friday. / NASAThe astronauts originally planned to spend six-and-a-half hours outside the station, but the crew ran into problems when a small water leak was found where an airlock power-and-cooling umbilical attached to Fischer's spacesuit.
The airlock is equipped with two such umbilicals to provide cooling water, power and data while the astronauts are inside the station, preserving the suits' batteries for the actual EVA.
With one umbilical out of action, Whitson and Fischer had to share the remaining power and cooling line, swapping it back and forth periodically. But that meant each astronaut, in turn, had to rely on suit battery power when the umbilical was not attached.
Playing it safe, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center decided to shorten the spacewalk to four hours and to eliminate all tasks other than the highest priority item, replacement of a 200-pound avionics box on an external logistics platform.
Deferred tasks included installation of a cable to help troubleshooters resolve cooling problems in a high-energy physics experiment; installation of a high-definition camera, two wireless antennas and micrometeoroid shielding; and work to repair insulation on a Japanese robot arm.
This is the 200th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the fifth so far this year, the first for Fischer and the ninth for Whitson, who is working through her third long-duration stay aboard the laboratory, her second stint as commander.
Going into today's spacewalk, Whitson had logged a cumulative 53 hours and 22 minutes of EVA time over eight previous outings, putting her fifth on the list of most experienced spacewalkers and No. 1 among females with EVA experience.
With a full-duration 6.5-hour spacewalk, Whitson would have moved up to third in the world with nearly 60 hours of EVA time over nine excursions, trailing only cosmonaut Anatoli Solovyev, with 78 hours and 21 minutes of spacewalk time over 16 EVAs, and retired astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, with 67 hours and 40 minutes over 10 excursions.
But with the shortened spacewalk Friday, Whitson likely will remain at the No. 5 spot, just behind retired astronaut Jerry Ross.
At the Kennedy Space Center, meanwhile, SpaceX is continuing preparations to launch an Inmarsat communications satellite Monday from historic pad 39A. Assuming that flight goes well Monday, the California rocket builder should be clear to press ahead with launch of a station-bound Dragon cargo ship on June 1.
One day later, Soyuz MS-03 commander Oleg Novitskiy and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet plan to return to Earth, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 196-day mission. The Dragon supply ship is scheduled to arrive June 4.
Novitskiy and Pesquet blasted off with Whitson last November 17, but her mission was recently extended and she now plans to remain in orbit until Sept. 3, joining Fischer and Soyuz MS-04 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin for the ride home. Yurchikhin and Fischer launched April 20 with an empty seat, part of a Russian effort to reduce costs.
With landing Sept. 3, Whitson's total time in space over three missions will stand at 666 days, moving her up to eighth in the world, just behind Yurchikhin at No. 7 with 673 days in orbit and six other cosmonauts. Gennady Padalka, with 878 days over five flights, tops the list.
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