posted 06-12-2024 07:39 PM               

ISS Expedition 71: U.S. Spacewalk 90

Two NASA astronauts will perform a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station to complete the removal of a faulty electronics box and collect samples of microorganisms on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory.

Expedition 71 crewmates Tracy Dyson and Matt Dominick will exit the station's Quest airlock on Thursday (June 13) to remove radio frequency group from a communications antenna on the starboard truss of the space station. A previous spacewalk in April 2023 began the removal but ran into a issue with a broken bolt.

The sample collection activity will help scientists analyze and understand the ability of microorganisms to survive and reproduce in the vacuum of space.

The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) and last about six and a half hours.

Dyson will serve as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) and will wear a suit with red stripes. Dominick will serve as EV2 and will wear an unmarked suit. The spacewalk will be the fourth for Dyson and the first for Dominick.

posted 06-13-2024 07:34 AM               

Spacewalk postponed

The spacewalk today, June 13, at the International Space Station did not proceed as scheduled due to a spacesuit discomfort issue.

NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matt Dominick begun doffing their spacesuits at approximately 6:25 a.m. CDT, about an hour before they were scheduled to exit the Quest airlock. No further details were provided by NASA.

posted 06-13-2024 05:38 PM               

Spacewalk rescheduled

With consideration for Boeing's Starliner Crew Flight Test and other operations at the space station, the spacewalk has been rescheduled for Monday, June 24.

posted 06-18-2024 09:19 AM               

The first spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. EDT June 24, and last about six and a half hours.

NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Mike Barratt will exit the station’s Quest airlock to complete the removal of a faulty electronics box, called a radio frequency group, from a communications antenna on the starboard truss of the space station. The pair also will collect samples for analysis to understand the ability of microorganisms to survive and reproduce on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory.

Dyson will serve as spacewalk crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Barratt will serve as spacewalk crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. U.S. spacewalk 90 will be the fourth spacewalk for Dyson and the third spacewalk for Barratt. It is the 271st spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

posted 06-18-2024 10:14 AM               

We didn't want to take the time to go resolve it. We couldn't resolve it that day and we were worried if we went out on EVA, if the situation gets worse and you have to terminate, we could leave the vehicle in a much worse config. So we decided to scrub the EVA.

When we took a look at the fact that we were only going to do two EVAs going forward and we had already planned for Mike to go out, so we had a suit ready for him. Instead of taking the extra time with all the other activities going on board around Starliner, we decided it just made sense to go ahead and and use Tracy and Mike, who were going to do EVAs anyway in this series.

posted 06-24-2024 06:43 AM               

Spacewalk canceled due to water leak

U.S. spacewalk 90 was cancelled on Monday (June 24 due to a water leak in the service and cooling umbilical unit (SCU) on Tracy Dyson's spacesuit.

Dyson and Mike Barratt set their suits to battery power at 8:46 a.m. EDT (1246 GMT) and opened the hatch to the space station's Quest airlock before reporting the water issue.

"Oh my goodness," said Dyson. "Water is flowing out of my SCU guys."

"Yeah, there is a lot of particulates floating around here," added Barratt. "There is water everywhere in here."

"Tracy, if you can reconnect your SCU to the DCM [Display and Control Module], that is the best way to stop this," radioed capcom Stephen Bowen from Mission Control in Houston.

Once Dyson reconnected her spacesuit cooling unit, the leak stopped but she had to deal with ice on her gloves and concerns about where other ice deposits had formed. Dyson closed the airlock hatch.

Dyson and Barratt worked with ground controllers to repressurize the crew lock section of the airlock before returning inside the station's equipment lock.

Monday's spacewalk had a duration of 31 minutes, officially ending at 9:17 a.m. EDT (1317 GMT). Dyson has now logged 23 hours and 20 minutes on four EVAs. Barratt now has spent 5 hours and 37 minutes on three spacewalks.

This was the 271st EVA in support of the assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station and the second this year.

posted 06-28-2024 11:50 AM               

We attempted on Monday to go out on spacewalk with with Tracy and Mike, and we ended early due to a water leak at the service and cooling umbilical unit that was attached to Tracy's suit. After she detached it, it started leaking, and so that led to a lot of water in the airlock.

The team continues to investigate what was going on with that [and] what caused it. When we came back inside, we weren't able to recreate that failure. So we're continuing to look at that.

Given that, we're currently targeting the end of July for our next EVA. So we want to give the team enough time to go understand what happened on this one and make sure we don't have to make any changes.

That spacewalk will actually be a different one than what we were trying to do on this last one. We're going to go out and relocate a communications antenna. We'll conduct some preparatory work for the alpha magnetic spectrometer, looking at some changes that we are going to make to that one down the road. We're going to replace an array gyro assembly, and then we will actually try to conduct some swabs of the outside of the space station looking for microorganisms.