posted 01-05-2016 09:51 AM               

NASA TV to air briefing on upcoming spacewalk

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will host a briefing at 1 p.m. CST (1900 GMT) on Tuesday, Jan. 12, to preview the tasks and preparation for a spacewalk by astronauts living on the International Space Station (ISS).

The briefing and spacewalk will air live on NASA Television, and be streamed on NASA's website. Coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 5:30 a.m. CST (1130 GMT) on Friday, Jan. 15, with the spacewalk scheduled to begin at 6:55 a.m CST (1255 GMT).

Expedition 46 flight engineers Tim Kopra of NASA and Tim Peake of ESA will venture outside the space station's Quest airlock to replace a failed voltage regulator that compromised one of the station's eight power channels last November. The Jan. 15 spacewalk will be the third in Kopra's career and the first for Peake, and the 192nd for maintenance of the space station.

The participants for the Jan. 12 briefing will include:

• Kenneth Todd, ISS operations integration manager
  
• Royce Renfrew, ISS spacewalk flight director
  
• Paul Dum, lead spacewalk officer

This will be the 35th spacewalk using the U.S. Quest airlock, and will focus on replacing a voltage regulator called a Sequential Shunt Unit that failed Nov. 13, 2015. Additional tasks include deploying cables for the future installation of an International Docking Adapter that will accommodate U.S. commercial crew vehicles, and retrieving a broken light from a truss camera.

posted 01-06-2016 01:28 PM               

We 'built' my spacesuit today — sized to perfection and looking good! Fit check early next week.

posted 01-15-2016 07:53 AM               

U.S. and British astronauts on spacewalk

NASA astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peake switched their spacesuits to battery power at 6:48 a.m. CST (1248 GMT) on Friday (Jan. 15), signifying the start of their planned six and a half hour spacewalk.

The astronauts are working to replace a failed voltage regulator (sequential shunt unit, or SSU) that caused a loss of power to one of the space station's eight power channels last November.

Kopra is wearing a spacesuit with red stripes and is designated EV1. His helmet camera displays the number 17. Peake is wearing a spacesuit with no stripes and is designated EV2. His helmet camera displays the number 20.

posted 01-15-2016 11:16 AM               

Water leak in astronaut's helmet cuts short US and British spacewalk

A spacewalk outside of the International Space Station was terminated on Friday (Jan. 15) after an astronaut reported a small water bubble forming inside his spacesuit's helmet.

NASA astronaut Tim Kopra called down to Mission Control in Houston just before 11:00 a.m. CST (1700 GMT) to alert about the leak, noting that the water was about 3 inches (8 cm) above his head. By moving, he was able to come into contact with the water and noted it was cold, a sign that it might be coming from his portable life support backpack.

"We're in a terminate case," radioed NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman in Mission Control, relaying Flight Director Royce Renfrew's decision. "We want you to start heading back to the airlock."

posted 01-15-2016 03:30 PM               

...you see that CO2 sensor go bad, one of the legs of that fault tree is that you're going to get water in the helmet.