posted 02-01-2023 08:51 PM               

ISS Expedition 68: U.S. Spacewalk 85

Two astronauts on the International Space Station will conduct a spacewalk on Thursday (Feb. 2) to continue the installation of hardware for future power system upgrades.

Expedition 68 crewmates Nicole Mann of NASA and Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) are scheduled to exit the Quest airlock at about 8:15 a.m. EST (1315 GMT) to complete installation of a mounting platform on the 1A power channel as part of a planned solar array augmentation on the starboard side of the station's truss.

The duo will complete the installation of the mounting platform that was started during a spacewalk on Jan. 20, relocate and install an articulating portable foot restraint from the P6 truss for future spacewalk tasks, and if time permits, complete cable routing on the 1B power channel.

The installation is part of a series of spacewalks to augment the International Space Station's power channels with new International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs). Four iROSAs have been installed so far, and two more will be mounted to the platforms installed during this spacewalk in the future.

Mann will serve as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1) and will wear a suit with red stripes. Wakata will serve as EV 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. The spacewalk will be the second in both Wakata's and Mann's careers.

NASA will provide live coverage of the spacewalk beginning at 6:45 a.m. EST.

posted 02-02-2023 01:42 PM               

Astronauts complete installing solar array mount

Nicole Mann and Koichi Wakata spent a couple of hours on Thursday (Feb. 2) finishing the work they began last month to erect a support structure for an International Space Station (ISS) Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) to be launched later this year. The hold-up, positioning a strut's flat seating plate so that it was flush on a cylindrical canister, was ultimately achieved by the two Expedition 68 crewmates exerting force on either side of the hardware.

From there it was mostly a straightforward task to complete the mount, which will support the new iROSA array for the 1A power channel on the starboard side of the station's truss. The two astronauts ran into some minor delays, though, having to remove and reinstall insulation after forgetting to install a pin and dealing with spacesuit issues, including a helmet camera needing to be reset and a brief oxygen level spike that was thought to be a possible glove breach, but was cleared after Wakata inspected the suspect gauntlet.

With the "mid-strut" secured in place and a lower strut installed, Wakata and Mann completed the major task of the spacewalk and moved on to some "get-aheads," including positioning a bundle of cables for the 1B power channel, relocating a portable foot restraint and replacing the ingress aid for another of the same devices.

After pausing to take a few photographs of each other, Mann and Wakata reentered the airlock and began its re-pressurization at 2:26 p.m. EST (1926 GMT), ending the spacewalk after 6 hours and 41 minutes.

Thursday's spacewalk was the second for both Mann and Wakata. Each have now logged 14 hours and 2 minutes working in the vacuum of space. The EVA was the sixth conducted during Expedition 68, the second of the year and 259th in support of ISS assembly and maintenance.