“With that, we have a new port of call”, NASA commentator Rob Navias said as the space station flew over Singapore at 10:40 a.m. (1440 UTC).
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Rubins and Williams are installing the first IDA today.
The spacewalk is expected to last for six and a half hours as the two astronauts fit the ISS with an global docking adapter. NASA maintains a three-person crew, which often includes an astronaut from one of the agency’s worldwide partners. Calling the Russian contemplation of crew reduction “strictly a proposal” for now, Todd promised to evaluate the risk the United States program could face without the extra Russian aboard the ISS.
NASA plans to sell off the International Space Station (ISS) to a commercial operator around the mid-2020s. These ports will work as parking places for the private space crafts that are expected on ISS soon. However, in order for these to dock at the station, a new docking module needs to be installed to fit the shuttles and astronauts need to get to work. Then, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra noticed a small water bubble forming inside his helmet, probably due to an issue with his spacesuit’s sublimator, inducing too much condensation. The influx of commercial launches to the ISS would reduce NASA’s involvement in the project. Before the start of the spacewalk, the ground robotics team used the space station’s robotic arm “Dextre” to position the IDA in front of the Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 (PMA-2).
The ISS has played an important role in boosting the commercial space sector.
NASA commentator Rob Navias said the U.S. space agency has done a thorough review of the spacesuits being worn by Rubins and Williams, and they are in “excellent shape” for Friday’s spacewalk. These test flights – meant to go all the way to the space station and dock – will last about two weeks. The two biggest benefactors, SpaceX and Boeing, have each received upwards of $US3 billion ($3.9 billion) from NASA to develop systems for ferrying astronauts to low Earth orbit and the ISS.
The successful spacewalk occurred a day after a key leader at NASA announced the space agency was looking to hand off control of the ISS to a private company within the next decade. He has accumulated 19 hours of spacewalk time so far. Meanwhile, Roscosmos has run into major financial troubles.
At least two more spacewalks had been planned before the end of the year to install a replacement set of solar array batteries. But that mission failed when the launch vehicle disintegrated about two minutes after launch.
Onishi and astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who is scheduled for launch to the station September 23, originally planned to carry out the battery swap out in October.
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As of this writing, it’s not known when the HTV might be ready for launch or when the battery spacewalk might be carried out.
