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| Image above: An Expedition 13 crew member works outside
the International Space Station during the second spacewalk of the
mission. Credit: NASA TV |
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Expedition 13's ham radio pair successfully complete spacewalk
The Space station's ham radio crewmen - Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter
- worked quickly through scheduled spacewalk tasks Thursday, then completed
three get-ahead jobs, or extra tasks, and were ready for more. Mission
Control assigned two more jobs, which the astronauts also completed.
Williams and Reiter wrapped up their productive 5-hour, 54-minute excursion
and began repressurizing the Quest airlock at 3:58 p.m. EDT. The astronauts
left the airlock in U.S. spacesuits at 9:04 a.m. EDT. Station Commander
Pavel Vinogradov RV3BS, helped them with spacewalk preparations and getting
into their suits. It was the first time in more than three years a third
crewmember had been available for those tasks on the orbiting laboratory.
Williams KD5TVQ, designated lead spacewalker, or EV1, wore the U.S. spacesuit
with red stripes. Reiter DF4TR, EV2, wore the all-white suit.
Astronaut Steve Bowen acted as spacewalk intravehicular officer and coached
the astronauts from the International Space Station Flight Control Room
in Houston's Mission Control Center. Williams and Reiter quickly got ahead
of their timeline.
First, they installed the Floating Potential Measurement Unit. The device
measures the electrical potential of the station so procedures can be
devised to minimize arcing hazards, or the jumping of current from a conductor
to a ground, as the station grows.
Their second job was to install two containers for MISSE, the materials
on International Space Station Experiment. The
suitcase-like containers are left open to evaluate the long-term effects
of space exposure on a variety of materials.
The idea is to identify optimal materials for use in future spacecraft.
MISSE 3 went on one of the high-pressure tanks around the crew lock, while
MISSE 4 was installed on Quest's outboard end.
The two astronauts then went on to separate jobs. Williams installed
a controller for a thermal radiator rotary joint on the S1 truss, while
Reiter replaced a computer on the truss.
Williams then began installing a starboard jumper and spool positioning
device (SPD) on the S1 truss. Reiter inspected a radiator beam valve module
SPD site where one device was already installed and installed an additional
one. He then moved on to install a SPD on a port cooling line jumper.
The jumpers are designed to improve the flow of ammonia through the radiators
once that coolant is installed.
Williams began setup for the final major scheduled task, a test of an
infrared camera designed to detect damage in a shuttle's reinforced carbon
carbon (RCC) thermal protection. The camera highlights damage by showing
variations in temperature between clean and damaged RCC test sections.
Reiter operated the experiment while Williams went on to one of the additional
tasks.
The first task was installation of a light on the truss railway
handcart to help future spacewalkers. Williams then removed a malfunctioning
GPS antenna. After Reiter finished the infrared camera experiment, he
installed a vacuum system valve on the U.S. laboratory Destiny for future
scientific experiments.
Mission control came up with additional tasks. Williams moved two articulating
portable foot restraints to prepare for STS-115 spacewalks and then photographed
a scratch on the airlock hatch.
Reiter went to PMA1, a pressurized "corridor," to retrieve
and inspect a ball stack which holds hardware during spacewalks.
The crew also had additional time throughout the spacewalk to photograph
the worksites after their tasks were complete and then snap pictures of
each other at the end. With no more quick tasks to add, the spacewalkers
re-entered the airlock and closed the hatch early.
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