With a third spacewalk, astronauts successfully finished the intricate cable job which they performed outside the International Space Station on Sunday, March 1, thus “routing several-hundred feet of power and data lines for new crew capsules” ordered by NASA.
This was the last of three spacewalks conducted over a period of 7 days by American astronauts Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore. The first spacewalk took place on February 21 with the second having been set for Wednesday, February 25.
The manned spacecrafts are currently under Boeing and SpaceX development. Two docking ports will be sent to space somewhere this year. The two capsules will follow later on, in 2017, carrying crew members.
After completing the last spacewalk, Virts noticed a small amount of water in his helmet while in the air lock during chamber repressurization. The same thing happened after Wednesday’s spacewalk.
According to engineers who analyzed Wednesday’s situation, the water in his helmet was the result of the air lock repressurization. They added that this event lacked any dangers, as it was a “safe and well understood circumstance”.
NASA assured the public that water formed only after reentering the spacecraft and that no leakage was detected while outdoors.
The two astronauts’ mission was to install two groups of antennas along with 400 feet of cable in order to have everything ready for the new communication system. During previous spacewalks, they managed to unwind a total of 364 feet of cable. The three missions needed a total working time of 19 hours.
Wilmore’s hadn’t experienced such issues with his suit but just before Sunday’s outing, a pressure sensor encountered brief technical difficulties. The mechanical gauge, however, was fully functional.
The two astronauts were brought to the ISS with the help of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. NASA covered the multimillion-dollar ride expenses but wants to be less dependent of the Russian Space Agency in the future.
With this purpose and the chance of reducing transport costs, NASA is now collaborating with
Boeing and SpaceX in order to build a spacecraft that can carry crew members to the space station. The deadline is 2017 but NASA has a second plan. The Space Agency considers buying Russian Soyuz seats for its astronauts by 2018.
Image Source: Dailymail