The Expedition Crew 10 (ISS-10) of the International Space Station (ISS) performed the second egress into space out of the two EVAs scheduled in the flight program.
The extravehicular activities were preceded by the onboard crew preparation, as well as relevant medical examination. The crew prepared and checked the Russian EVA spacesuits and equipment of the transfer compartment of Zvezda module and Pirs docking compartment-module of the ISS Russian Segment. By results of the preparation and talks with specialists of the Mission Control Center in Moscow (MCC-M) the EVA timeline was updated, the station onboard systems were put in a state of readiness prior to EVA.
The crew commander, Leroy Chiao, NASA astronaut, and flight engineer, Salizhan Sharipov, Russian Cosmonaut left the Orbital Complex through the egress hatch of the Pirs compartment-module, that was open at 10:25 Moscow time.
In the course of EVA the crew installed and connected three proximity communication equipment antennas on Zvezda working compartment to ensure docking of the new European cargo vehicle (ATV) to the ISS, mounted the satellite navigation antenna unit on Zvezda instrument compartment and took photo survey of the videometer installed by the previous ISS crew (Gennady Padalko and Michael Fincke ) during EVA.
The EVAs were completed with a launch of a five-kilogram mini-satellite Nanosat, which signals have already been received at MCC-M. At launch S. Sharipov imparted a velocity of one m/sec to the satellite in the direction opposite to the velocity vector of the ISS flight, thus having excluded their potential subsequent collision.
The mini-satellite will stay in orbit for about 100 days. The specialists hope that the experience in operating the satellite will enable to develop miniature spacecraft for various intended utilization in future.
Upon completion of the scheduled EVA program activities that took about 4.5 hours, the crew came back to Pirs module, having closed the egress hatch at 14:55.
The data exchange between the ISS and Mission Control Center in Moscow (MCC-M) was performed in the Russian ground site coverage. Outside this coverage the data was exchanged through the U.S. communication systems.
According to the reports made by the crew and LOCT providing control and monitoring of the Russian Segment flight from MCC-M under the direction of V.A. Soloviev, RSC Energia Deputy Designer General, Flight Cosmonaut, the crew feels well, and status of the ISS onboard systems is consistent with the designed specifications.
The ISS on-orbit complex consists of Functional Cargo Module Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, docking compartment-module Pirs, transport spacecraft Soyuz-TMA-5 and Progress M-52, modules Unity and Destiny, airlock Kvest, multi-link truss structure with deployed solar arrays. The progress of EVA operations was observed by managers and specialists of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia, Roskosmos, Yu. Gagarin CTC RGNII and other companies and industry organizations supporting the EVA program implementation, which were present at MCC-M.
Upon completion of these operations a briefing was held for journalists present at MCC-M, at which professional activity of S. Sharipov and L. Chiao was highly commended.
