December 23, 2024

Astronauts Complete 6 Hour and 54 Minute Spacewalk To Install Space Station Upgrades

In the video above, recorded a few days earlier, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer shares a statement on his first spacewalk.
The spacewalk understood as US EVA 80 saw the set stepping outside the International Space and investing approximately six and a half hours operating in area. Matthias was EV-2, wearing an all-white spacesuit, while Raja was lead spacewalker, called EV-1, in a white spacesuit with red stripes.
Their tasks consisted of installing hose pipes on a radiator beam valve module that routes ammonia through the Stations heat-rejecting radiators to regulate system temperatures, installing a power and data cable on the Bartolomeo science platform outside ESAs Columbus module, replacing an external video camera on the Stations truss, and performing other upgrades to Station hardware.

Astronauts Raja Chari and Matthias Maurer are imagined replacing an external high-definition cam throughout a 6-hour 54-minute spacewalk today. Credit: NASA TV
Exploration 66 Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) concluded their spacewalk at 3:26 p.m. EDT on March 23, 2022, after 6 hours and 54 minutes in preparation for upcoming solar range installation.
Maurer and Chari completed their major objective for today to install tubes on a Radiator Beam Valve Module that routes ammonia through the stations heat-rejecting radiators to keep systems at the appropriate temperature. The crew members also installed a power and information cable on the Columbus modules Bartolomeo science platform, changed an external video camera on the stations truss, and carried out other upgrades to station hardware. The set delayed a couple of secondary tasks, such as torque resets and cable routing, to a future spacewalk.
It was the 248th spacewalk in support of area station assembly, upgrades, and maintenance, and was the second in Charis profession and the very first for Maurer. Chari and Maurer are in the middle of a prepared six-month science objective living and working aboard the microgravity lab to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new innovations for future human and robotic expedition missions as part of NASAs Moon and Mars exploration method, consisting of lunar objectives through NASAs Artemis program.