Astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren translate along the port truss structure back to the Quest airlock after completing cooling system servicing work. (Photo : NASA TV)
International Space Station commander Scott Kelly along with fellow astronaut Kjell Lindgren conducted a busy and complex yet almost trouble free spacewalk on Friday, November 6, where they routed ammonia back to the primary radiator for the space laboratory's solar arrrays where they also bypassed a secondary radiator that was activated three years ago in order to detect a coolant leak.
This backup radiator was located at the side of the ISS' power truss and was later extended open when the astronauts when they ran out of time to cinch it however, the main focus of this spacewalk is to restore the coolant system of the P6 power channel 2B arrays back to its regular configuration, which was successfully completed.
The astronauts also carried out adjustments of the brake handles of the equipment carrier that is used along with a robot arm transporter where they also tightened the bolts on a massive strut of the mechanism that is responsible for the rotation of the solar arrays located on the left side to eliminate vibration that was observed in telemetry.
After they re-extended the backup radiator, the duo kept their tools and tethers where they made their way back to the Quest airlock, that ended the spacewalk at 2:10 P.M. EST making the total duration of the entire spacewalk lasting for seven hours and 48 minutes.
To date, the total spacewalk time aboard the ISS is 1,192 hours and 4 minutes that was taken from over 190 excursions since the orbital lab began operations in 1998.
Astronaut Megan Behnken from mission control said, good work Kjell and Scott as the spacewalkers are preparing to re-pressurize in the airlock, it has been a privilege working with you guys today, making us all proud.
Lindgren responded, let me thank all the folks that made this all possible. Really appreciated the engineers and folks that built, trained and maintain our suits and also those who train us in the pool and ops folks who all worked so hard today to get much done as possible, appreciated all your hard work.
This is the second spacewalk in nine days for Kelly and Lindgren where last week, they ventured out to do a routine maintenance for laying down power and data cables that are needed for new docking mechanisms to be installed for later.
