CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – Space astronauts had to take extra safety measures on Saturday after injecting the suit of any toxic ammonia from a cooling system outside the International Space Station.
Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins had no trouble removing and releasing two cables to clear any ammonia in the lines. But there was so much ammonia spewing out of the first hose that Mission Control was worried that some of the frozen white flasks might have gotten into the suit.
Hopkins was amazed by the amount of ammonia released into the empty space.
“Oh, yes, look at that. Did you see that?” he asked flight attendants. “There’s more than I thought.”
Even though the flow of ammonia was directed away from the astronauts and the space station, Hopkins said some frozen crystals may have come in contact with his helmet. As a result, Mission Control said it was going to be conservative and needed inspections.
The first suit survey of astronauts found nothing. “Looks clean,” shouted Hopkins.
NASA did not want any ammonia to enter the space station and pollute the cabinet atmosphere. The astronauts used long machines to ventilate the pipes and stayed clean from the cigarettes, to reduce the risk of ammonia binding.
As soon as the ammonia pipes were emptied, the astronauts moved one of them to a more central location near NASA’s lap, in case the other end of the station was needed. The ammonia cables were added years ago after a cooling system leak.
There are no obvious remains left
As the spacewalk nearly seven hours later, Mission Control said the astronauts had spent enough time in sunlight to remove any ammonia residue from their suits. In fact, once Glover and Hopkins were back inside, the crew said they could not smell ammonia but would still wear gloves while handling the switches.
The hose work should have been completed at a spacewalk a week ago but was canceled along with other weird works when a power upgrade took longer than expected.
Other works on Saturday included: installing an antenna for helmet cameras, recirculating ethernet cables, tightening connections on a European test platform, and installing a metal ring on the thermal cover. hatch.
Wanting to make these station improvements before the astronauts come home in the spring, Mission Control ordered the bonus spacecraft for Glover and Hopkins, which launched in November last year on SpaceX. They came together for backyard spaceships 1 to 1 months ago and were happy to put chalk on another one.
“It was a good day,” Glover once said back inside.
Although most of their efforts paid off, there were a few catches.
The spacewalk began nearly an hour late, so the men could put the communication caps under their helmets so they could hear properly. A few hours later, Glover’s right eye began to water. The humiliation soon passed, but it affected his left eye afterwards.
Then as Glover folded his work, a bolt came apart and swam away along with the washers, becoming the latest pieces of waste.
“We’re sorry about that,” Glover said. “No, no, it’s not your fault,” Mission Control assured him.
This was the sixth spaceflight – and, in hindsight, the last one – for this US-Russian-Japanese team of seven. All but one were managed by NASA.