Sat, Jun 26, 2004
Leak in Russian spacesuit O2 bottle forces cancellation
A spacewalk intended to replace a faulty circuit breaker on the
exterior of the International Space Station was cut short when the
primary oxygen bottle on Astronaut Mike Fincke's Russian space suit
began losing pressure faster than expected. The overall pressure in
Fincke's suit remained stable at all times and he was not in
danger. A backup oxygen tank available on his suit was not
needed.
Fincke and Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka opened the
Pirs docking compartment hatch at 16:56 CDT. Immediately after
Fincke floated out of the airlock, flight controllers in Moscow saw
readings that indicated the primary oxygen bottle on Fincke's suit
was losing pressure.
The two spacewalkers returned to the airlock and closed the
hatch about 14 minutes later. After conducting preliminary
troubleshooting activities, Padalka and Fincke were asked to remove
the Orlan-M spacesuits and assist with troubleshooting of Fincke's
suit. Russian flight controllers could not immediately determine
the cause of the malfunction.
Fincke and Padalka then climbed out of the suits, returned to
the Station's living quarters and began working with ground
controllers to reconfigure the Station's systems for normal
operations. The duration of Fincke and Padalka's spacewalk was 14
minutes, 22 seconds.
Mission managers in Houston and Moscow agreed to conduct further
evaluation of the problem before setting a new target date for the
spacewalk. The earliest the spacewalk could now be performed is
June 29 based on Russian ground communications coverage.
Fincke told Mission Control in Houston that he was pleased
flight controllers in Moscow had discovered the oxygen tank problem
so quickly, and thanked both control teams for their efforts. He
indicated the crew would sleep late tomorrow, and then resume their
regular sleep schedule until it was time to prepare for another
spacewalk.
The spacewalk's goal is to replace a Remote Power Controller
Module (RPCM) which houses a faulty circuit breaker, through which
power is routed to one of the Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs).
There are four CMGs in the Station's Z1 truss. They control the
orientation of the ISS in space. CMG 1 failed about two years
ago, and will be replaced during the next Shuttle mission. CMG 2
was taken off line by the April 21 failure of the circuit breaker
and should be restored by the RPCM's replacement. Meanwhile, two
functioning CMGs adequately control the station's attitude.
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