Fwd: Russian EVA 36

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: November 10, 2013 3:05:36 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Russian EVA 36

 

 

 

Russian Space Agency astronauts completed a spacewalk by the Russian program

11/10/2013 00:24 ::

 

November 10 at 00.24 Moscow time, flight engineers of the International Space Station (ISS) - Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazan finished 42th spacewalk from the Russian segment of the ISS (the 36th planned by the Russian program). The astronauts returned to the docking bay (DC1) "Pierce" and closed the exit hatch.

For Oleg Kotov this spacewalk was the fourth, and for Sergey Ryazan - first.

Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency

 

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Russia takes Olympic torch to first spacewalk

Photo NASA  

KOROLEV, Moscow region, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russia has taken the Olympic Torch to the first spacewalk, the Mission Control Centre told Itar-Tass.

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky have taken the Olympic Torch on a spacewalk for the first time ever. Kotov has handed off the Olympic Torch to Ryazansky.

Kotov and Ryazansky have handed off the Olympic Torch to each other several times. They waved the Olympic Torch and asked: "How is seen from the Earth?" "All is excellent. We like it," one of the Centre's officials replied.

 

© Copyright 2013 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. 

 

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Realtime coverage of Russian EVA 36

11/09/2013 03:38 PM 

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

03:35 PM EST, 11/09/13: Spacewalk ends

Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy returned to the safety of the Pirs airlock module Saturday to close out a five-hour 50-minute spacewalk highlighted by a symbolic Olympic torch photo op.

The cosmonauts began repressurizing Pirs at 3:24 p.m., ending the year's eighth space station assembly and maintenance spacewalk.

Kotov and Ryazanskiy accomplished their major objectives, spending just under two hours on the Olympic relay publicity shoot and working on a camera mounting platform that will be used later by a Canadian company to beam down high-definition Earth views.

But the cosmonauts were unable to install a foot restraint as originally planned, bringing it back inside the station for troubleshooting, and they could not fold down an antenna on a deactivated seismic experiment.

This was the 174th station spacewalk since assembly began in 1998, the fourth for Kotov and the first for Ryazanskiy. One hundred and 13 astronauts, cosmonauts and international spacewalkers have now logged 1,094 hours and 39 minutes of station EVA time, or 45.6 days.

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11:45 AM EST, 11/09/13: Olympic torch handed off in symbolic spacewalk relay

The Olympic torch relay leading to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, chalked up a space first Saturday, with two cosmonauts staging a symbolic handoff, passing the torch back and forth while posing for publicity shots during a six-hour spacewalk.

Cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy floated out of the Pirs airlock first, carrying commercial Go-Pro cameras and other gear to record proprietary video of the torch for Olympic organizers in Russia.

Fellow spacewalker Oleg Kotov held the safely tethered torch in the open hatch of the Pirs module while Ryazanskiy took pictures and mounted cameras on station structure to record the scene. Kotov then floated outside and made his way to the ladder where he met up with his crewmate.

Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov holds an Olympic torch out to fellow spacewalker Sergey Ryazanskiy during a symbolic handoff outside the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA TV)

 

Ryazanskiy takes the torch and passes it back to Kotov. (Credit: NASA TV)

"Here we go, wave and smile," Russian flight controllers radioed a few minutes later.

Both cosmonauts then posed for the cameras and Kotov handed the torch off to Ryazanskiy. They then repositioned themselves and carried out another handoff with more posing for still photos and video. While some of the photography was proprietary, views from NASA helmet cameras and others mounted on the exterior of the station provided realtime views.

"The weather is beautiful, we'll just take a stroll," one of the cosmonauts said as they moved to a different location. Both men took a break during a night pass, resting and enjoying the view from 250 miles up.

"Are you hiding from us?" a flight controller joked at one point.

"We are taking a nap," one of the cosmonauts replied.

The torch then was carried to yet another location for additional handoffs and more pictures before it eventually was returned to the airlock and safely stowed away inside.

"Olympic torch operations are now complete," one of the cosmonauts radioed just under two hours into the spacewalk.

If all goes well, the torch will be returned to Earth Sunday aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft that will bring Fyodor Yurchikhin, Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg back to Earth to wrap up a 166-day stay in space.

A dramatic view of Typhoon Halyan taken by station astronaut Karen Nyberg early Saturday. (Credit: NASA)

Nyberg posted a dramatic view of Typhoon Haiyan early Saturday, showing the massive storm, stretching from horizon to horizon, shortly after it passed over the Philippines.

The torch relay on Earth is expected to take 123 days, involve some 14,000 people and cover 34,800 miles across Russia, not counting the mileage chalked up aboard the space station.

This was the second space flight for an Olympic torch. The shuttle Atlantis carried a torch aloft in 1996 before the Summer Games in Atlanta, but it was not taken outside.

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09:40 AM EST, 11/09/13: Russian EVA-36 begns

Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy opened the hatch of the International Space Station's Pirs airlock module at 9:34 a.m. EST (GMT-5) Saturday to officially kick off a planned six-hour spacewalk.

The excursion is highlighted by a symbolic, high-profile Olympic torch handoff in orbit to herald the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

The cosmonauts also plan to carry out routine maintenance and assembly tasks, moving a foot restraint for an upcoming spacewalk, stowing an experiment package and finishing work on a camera aiming platform that a Canadian company will use later to stream high definition Earth views to subscribers around the world.

This is the 174th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the eighth so far this year, the fourth for Kotov and the first for Ryazanskiy. Going into today's excursion, 112 astronauts and cosmonauts had logged 1,088 hours and 49 minutes of spacewalk time on the station, or 45.4 days.

For identification, Kotov, call sign EV-1, is wearing a Russian Orlan suit with red stripes. Ryazanskiy, EV-2, is wearing a suit with blue trim.

The first item on the agenda is the Olympic torch photo op. Ryazanskiy planned to exit the airlock first, using still and video cameras to capture proprietary footage of Kotov, with the safely tethered torch, posing in the Pirs hatch.

After mounting cameras on the station's hull, Ryazanskiy will join Kotov for a symbolic torch handoff in space. A variety of shots are planned before the torch is returned to Pirs. The cosmonauts then will press on with other tasks on their EVA timeline.

As with all spacewalks on the station, the crew members inside will be isolated in parts of the lab complex where they will have access to the Soyuz ferry craft that carried them into orbit.

The Soyuz TMA-09M crew -- Fyodor Yurchikhin, Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg -- will spend the day in the Russian Zvezda command module where their ferry craft is docked.

The Soyuz TMA-11M crew, launched earlier this week -- commander Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata -- will be restricted to the forward segment of the station with access to the Russian Rassvet module where their Soyuz is attached.

Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Michael Hopkins make up the Soyuz TMA-10M crew. While Kotov and Ryazanskiy are outside, Hopkins will be isolated in the Poisk module where the TMA-10M craft is docked.

© 2011 William Harwood/CBS News

 

 

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AmericaSpace

For a nation that explores
November 9th, 2013

 

Cosmonauts Carry Olympic Torch on Symbolic Space Station EVA

By Ben Evans

 

Oleg Kotov proudly displays the red-and-chrome Olympic torch at the beginning of an ultimately disappointing Russian EVA-36. Photo Credit: NASA

Expedition 37 crewmen Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky ventured outside the International Space Station (ISS) earlier today (Saturday) on a near-six-hour spacewalk, the highlight of which was to display the Olympic torch as part of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games relay. Clad in Russian-built Orlan-MK ("Sea Eagle") space suits, the two cosmonauts—with Kotov on his fourth career EVA and Ryazansky on his first—officially departed the airlock hatch of the Pirs module at 9:34 a.m. EST and a few minutes began transmitting spectacular pictures of the red-and-chrome torch, then set to work on their other tasks. Despite their sterling efforts, and some astonishing imagery of themselves and the cloud-bedecked Earth, their other tasks met with frustration and the EVA ended after five hours and 50 minutes.

As described by NASA last week, the symbolic Olympic torch relay was just one small part of this lengthy spacewalk, which also featured the preparation of the Urthecast pointing platform for the installation of a high-definition Earth-observation camera in December, the relocation of a foot restraint, the removal of a microwave radiometry experiment and the photo-documentation of multi-layer insulation on the Russian Segment. For the purposes of identification, Kotov's Orlan-MK suit was emblazoned with red stripes, whilst that of Ryazansky carried blue stripes.

According to Spaceflight101, preparations for EVA-36—the 36th spacewalk to be conducted from the Russian Segment—got underway about two weeks ago, with suit fit checks, battery charging and communications and other systems tests. Kotov and Ryazansky also installed pressurization tanks inside the 16-foot-long (4.9-meter) Pirs module and conducted a lengthy suited rehearsal of their preparations last week. Earlier today, assisted by Expedition 37 crewmate Mikhail Tyurin, the men began donning their suits at about 7:50 a.m. EST and both they and the Olympic torch were in position inside Pirs shortly thereafter. Following leak checks, purging of their suits and mandatory "pre-breathing", the cosmonauts transferred their Orlan-MKs to internal battery power at about 9:30 a.m. and the EVA officially got underway a few minutes later.

A Progress cargo ship approaches the Pirs docking module. As well as serving as a docking port, Pirs provides an airlock for spacewalks from the Russian Segment. Photo Credit: NASA

Built by the Zvezda NPP design bureau, the Orlan-MK suit weighs 265 pounds (120 kg) and operates at 5.8 psi. It was first tested by Expedition 19 crewmen Gennadi Padalka and Mike Barratt on a spacewalk in June 2009. In addition to a seven-hour life-support capacity, it carries equipment within its backpack to process data from the suit's systems and can issue warnings in the event of a malfunction. A contingency plan is then displayed on a small screen affixed to the right side of the Orlan-MK's torso. This is designed to circumvent the need for spacewalkers to memorize their reactions in an emergency situation. As a space suit "family", five generations of Orlans can trace their heritage back to the 1970s and were employed by cosmonauts aboard the Salyut 6 and 7 space stations, aboard Mir in the 1980s and 1990s and have served aboard the ISS since 2001.

For today's EVA, the opening of the outer airlock hatch was followed by the installation of a protective ring to guard its external seal against damage. As planned, Ryazansky was first to leave the module and quickly set to work configuring safety tethers and establishing himself on Pirs' EVA ladder. A few minutes later, Kotov emerged from the airlock, brandishing the Olympic torch. The cosmonauts fitted a commercial GoPro camera to capture images of the symbolic activity and by 11:30 a.m. EST the torch operation was complete. Kotov stowed the GoPro box and the torch inside the Pirs airlock and brought out a Crew Lock Bag, containing tools for the other tasks on the spacewalk. Ryazansky translated to the interface with the station's Zvezda service module, where he retrieved the "Yakor" ("Anchor") foot restraint and returned it to the EVA ladder outside Pirs.

The two cosmonauts then joined forces to move the Yakor, together with an "ingress aid" and the Crew Lock Bag, to one of Zvezda's universal work platforms, where the Biaxial Pointing Platform was mounted on Russian EVA-35 last August. The Platform will be used to point the high-resolution Urthecast camera, which is slated to be installed by Kotov and Mikhail Tyurin during EVA-37 on 23 December. This Canadian-led system is part of an international effort to fly publicly-accessible cameras aboard the ISS, enabling users to directly view Earth imagery from a pair of medium- and high-resolution instruments. With difficulty, the cosmonauts removed three bracketing bolts, but were forced to use a knife to cut away some obstructing multi-layer insulation and their gloved fingers and a magnet to capture the final stubborn bolt.

Kotov and Ryazansky also encountered problems when trying to properly orient the Yakor foot restraint, ahead of installation. This restraint will be used by future spacewalkers to install scientific instruments onto the Biaxial Pointing Platform. After struggling for some time, it was finally decided by Mission Control at 1:30 p.m. EST to bring the foot restraint back inside the ISS for troubleshooting. By now, EVA-36 was four hours old and the cosmonauts' next task was to remove the RK-21-8 microwave radiometry experiment, installed back in February 2011 by Expedition 26 cosmonauts Dmitri Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka. The experiment measured the radiance temperature of land and ocean surfaces, with a specific focus upon soil humidity, vegetation biomass and sea salinity on a regional and global scale.

Captured from Oleg Kotov's helmet camera, this view shows Sergei Ryazansky, who made his first career EVA today. Photo Credit: NASA

Positioning themselves on opposite sides of the RK-21-8 experiment, Kotov and Ryazansky set to work opening connector patch panels and uncoupling the connectors. After rerouting and securing the cables, they set to work folding the four panels of the RK-21-8 antenna, concertina-like, into its original stowed configuration. Unfortunately, the panels appeared somewhat stubborn and would move only slightly. After several fruitless attempts to close them, the disappointed cosmonauts were told at 2:30 p.m. EST to leave the antenna deployed and begin wrapping up their EVA. They cleaned up their work site and headed back to the safety of the Pirs airlock. The RK-21-8 experiment will be stowed and removed on a future spacewalk to make room for upcoming scientific payloads. Concluding Russian EVA-36 at 3:24 p.m. EST—after five hours and 50 minutes—Kotov and Ryazansky's excursion is the eight spacewalk of 2013 and the 174th to be dedicated to building and maintaining the outpost since its construction began in late 1998.

Today's EVA posed something of a headache for the other members of Expedition 37, which currently comprises no fewer than nine astronauts and cosmonauts, following Thursday morning's arrival of Soyuz TMA-11M. Due to the fact that parts of the Russian Segment were depressurized and rendered inaccessible during the spacewalk, NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins—who flew to the station alongside Kotov and Ryazansky on 25 September—was confined to the Poisk module and Soyuz TMA-10M, whilst Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano were restricted to their Soyuz TMA-09M vehicle at the aft end of Zvezda and Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata had the free run of the station's U.S. Segment, together with the Zarya and Rassvet modules and their own Soyuz TMA-11M craft.

Soyuz TMA-09M crew members (from left) Luca Parmitano, Karen Nyberg and Fyodor Yurchikhin will bring the Olympic torch back to Earth on Sunday, 10 November. Photo Credit: NASA

It is ironic that the main tasks of today's EVA should have met with such frustration and disappointment, for the world's media has centered its attention almost exclusively on the display of the Olympic torch. Ceremonially lit in Olympia, Greece, on 29 September, its Russian relay began on 7 October in Moscow's Red Square and will travel through 2,900 towns and villages, ahead of its arrival at the Black Sea coastal city of Sochi for the official start of the Games on 7 February 2014. Kotov's daughter and Ryazansky's wife are participating in the Olympic relay on the ground. For its "space" leg of its relay, the torch looks similar to those used on the ground, albeit with several modifications. "An open flame in space would be dangerous," explained Spaceflight101, adding that "the torch will feature a simulated flame. Another modification made on the flight model and its backup that is already aboard the station is the addition of a safety tether."

In the wake of today's successful journey of the torch into outer space, Kotov and Ryazansky brought the symbol of the Games back inside the ISS and the process of packing it aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M descent module for its return to Earth will commence almost immediately. Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin will relinquish command of the station and Kotov will formally take over his duties, marking the start of Expedition 38. Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano—who have occupied the ISS since late May—are slated to board Soyuz TMA-09M and undock from the Zvezda module at 6:26 p.m. EST tomorrow (Sunday). A little more than two hours later, they will execute a de-orbit burn to begin their journey back to Earth after 166 days in orbit. Touchdown of the three space travelers and their Olympic passenger on the barren steppe of Kazakhstan is scheduled for 7:49 a.m. local time Monday, 11 November (9:49 p.m. EST Sunday).

 

Copyright © 2013 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

 

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