Astronauts ‘operate’ on area station’s damaged robotic arm – Spaceflight Now

Two NASA astronauts floating exterior the International Space Station carried out a little bit of orbital surgical procedure Tuesday, efficiently changing a damaged 200-pound “wrist” joint close to the tip of the lab’s 58-foot-long robotic arm.

“That is a good install, you guys. I know that was tough. Wonderful work,” Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons known as up from mission management towards the tip of the seven-hour 20-minute tour.

On May 27, flight controllers on the Johnson Space Center in Houston observed one of many Canadian-built arm’s seven joints was drawing extra present than anticipated and never shifting correctly.

After an in depth evaluation of telemetry, NASA managers and specialists with the Canadian Space Agency, which equipped the station arm, concluded the joint had failed and wanted to get replaced with a spare, one in all two mounted on an exterior stowage platform.

“Systems like Canadarm2 were designed from the beginning with replaceable components and were planned with maintenance in mind,” stated ISS operations and integration supervisor Bill Spetch. “This is no exception.”



Floating within the Quest airlock, astronaut Jessica Meir, making her fifth spacewalk, and crewmate Chris Williams, making his second, switched their spacesuits to battery energy at 8:20 a.m. EDT, formally kicking off the 12 months’s third ISS spacewalk and the 280th total.

After establishing foot restraints close to the stowage platform and positioning the spare joint for set up, Williams and Meir indifferent the arm’s “hand,” often known as the latching finish effector, or LEE, together with two different wholesome joints.

The 900-pound meeting was quickly mounted on a close-by shelf, clearing the way in which for elimination of joint No. 5, the 200-pound wrist joint that failed. The alternative joint was efficiently put in four-and-a-half hours into the spacewalk.

“We’ll remove the failed joint 5, replace it with the spare joint and then once that’s back on the arm, our last major task will be to get that LEE cluster that we temporarily stowed and put it back onto the robotic arm so that we have a fully assembled arm at the end of the spacewalk,” stated flight director Fiona Antkowiak.

Five-and-a-half hours after starting the spacewalk, Williams and Meir had been in a position to re-attach the LEE cluster as deliberate. Shortly after, flight controllers powered up the arm and verified good electrical connections by means of the newly put in joint.

“Today we did hear good confirmation that … Canadarm 2 has two good strings of power and data to the arm,” stated NASA commentator Sandra Jones. “So today’s wrist surgery was successful.”

Williams and Mier, in the meantime, collected their instruments and headed again to the airlock to shut out the spacewalk.

Williams additionally introduced the failed joint again into the airlock so it may ultimately be returned to Earth for repairs. Once that work is full, the refurbished joint and one different might be relaunched to the area station for future use as wanted.

The robotic arm is important to regular station operations. It is used to seize Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo ships, pulling them in for berthing, whereas shifting different parts — and spacewalkers — from level to level throughout upkeep operations.

NASA plans to retire the area station by the tip of 2030, however Spetch stated the company will proceed to take care of the arm all through as a result of it’s important to ISS operations.

“There’s not a time where we say hey, we’re just done repairing the arm,” he stated. “Overall, the arm is critical for station operations and continued maintenance of it throughout to the end of life.”