Four NASA astronauts assigned to train for the first test flights of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will be relieved to see the ring, formally called International Docking Adapter, in place. NASA then awarded Orbital ATK and SpaceX commercial resupply services contracts to each deliver at least 20 metric tons of cargo to the orbiting laboratory on their Dragon and Cygnus spacecraft, respectively.
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Once the spacewalkers – also known as extravehicular (EV) crew – are outside the space station, an extension of the Canadarm2 robotic arm, called the “Dextre” Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), will push the bulky adaptor even closer to its installation point. Then the robotic arm would carry the adaptor to the spot where both astronauts would be working.
With the IDA in place, Williams will route ethernet cables needed by a future Russian module while Rubins routes a final set of cables to the top of Harmony where IDA-3 will eventually be attached.
NASA managers initially hoped to get the first IDA attached past year. Kathy Leuders from the Commercial Crew Program said, “Right now, the companies are in the midst of this grueling period of getting their vehicles together and getting their structural test articles together”. It will be the fourth spacewalk for Williams and the first for Rubins. William had his first spacewalk in 2000.
“There’s a very coordinated interplay between the external crew outside, Tak on the outside, and the ground doing the commanding”, said ZebScoville, the spacewalk flight director. The two astronauts will be assisted in their spacewalk by Takuya Onishi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, who will monitor the progress from inside the ISS during the installation. He will assist them from within the ISS. That walk lasted for two hours.
In other ISS news, Russian Federation is reportedly planning on reducing its space crew from 3 to 2. “Ultimately, our desire is to hand the space station over to either a commercial entity or some other commercial capability so that research can continue in low-earth orbit, so that research can continue in low-earth orbit”.
The International Space Station (ISS) is being fitted with a new dock in preparation for the arrival of privately-owned space taxis.
The much awaited spacewalk to install this new docking station will be shown live on NASA TV.
The worldwide docking adapter (IDA) is the centerpiece of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, aimed at re-establishing America’s capability to transfer astronauts to and from the global Space Station (ISS).
“Spacewalk” sounds like something that happens when astronauts decide to toke up and go off script, but in reality it’s a precisely orchestrated set of maneuvers that mission control times down to the minute.
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The spacewalk began at 8:05 a.m. EDT, Friday August 19, 2016. This is a crucial component of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
