Following a computer-simulated robotic training session, NASA astronauts will do a spacewalk on Thursday to install another solar array on the ISS.
Meanwhile, three cosmonauts are preparing for a spacewalk next week to replace hardware and examine modules. Station maintenance and health checks were also performed.
To prepare for a spacewalk on Thursday, June 15, four Expedition 69 astronauts performed robotic operations on a computer today. Next week, three Roscosmos ISS cosmonauts will do another spacewalk.
Thursday’s 8:55 a.m. EDT spacewalk will be Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg’s second together. On Friday, June 9, the spacewalkers will install the orbiting outpost’s sixth roll-out solar array on the starboard truss section opposite where they put the fifth array.
NASA TV’s app and website will webcast the spacewalk at 7:30 a.m.
Bowen and Hoburg trained on a computer with NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio and UAE Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi on Tuesday afternoon.
The four conducted Canadarm2 robotic arm motions to assist Bowen and Hoburg in removing the roll-out solar array from its flight support equipment and installing it on the starboard truss.
In the Quest airlock, the two spacewalkers readied their gear, printed checks for their spacesuit cuffs, and studied further spacewalk protocols on a computer.
At the conclusion of the day, Bowen and Hoburg used optometrist-grade medical imaging equipment to scan Rubio and Alneyadi’s eyes. In the morning, Rubio and Alneyadi serviced workout equipment and orbital plumbing hardware.
Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin spent all day Tuesday prepping for a Thursday, June 22 spacewalk.
Next week, they will depart the orbiting outpost’s Poisk airlock, so they reviewed protocols and found tools. The two cosmonauts will upgrade communications and science hardware and photograph the Zvezda service module during next week’s spacewalk.
Tuesday was spent servicing Zvezda’s Elektron oxygen generator and replacing Nauka scientific module smoke detectors by Roscosmos Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev. After work, Fedyaev worked out on the sophisticated resistive exercise gadget while ground professionals observed his form and hardware operations.