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Wearing bulky spacesuits, two Russian cosmonauts used the International Space Station’s Poisk docking compartment for the first time Wednesday on a spacewalk to begin preparing the nearly identical Pirs module for removal next year. A new laboratory module will subsequently be parked in its place.
Expedition 64 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov started the eighth spacewalk of the year at 10:12 am EST. The excursion, the first for both cosmonauts, arrives only two days later arrival of four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon commercial ferryboat.
For identification, Ryzhikov, call sign EV-1, wears a space suit with red stripes and uses helmet camera 20 while Kud-Sverchkov, EV-2, uses a suit with blue stripes and helmet camera 18.
Almost identical to Pirs, Poisk was launched almost exactly 11 years ago, on November 10, 2009, and connected to the top port of the Zvezda module two days later. It has been used many times as a docking port for unmanned Progress cargo ships and the Soyuz crew ferries, but never as a tailgate.
NASA
Before venturing outside, the cosmonauts spent about an hour making sure that Poisk’s side hatch, never used before, could be safely opened and hermetically sealed with an airtight seal and that the hatch leading to the station’s main body was free of leaks when the compartment is at or near the vacuum.
Wearing their Orlan space suits, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov partially depressurize Poisk for a first round of leak checks. NASA teammate Kate Rubins carried out similar tests from within the station’s Russian segment.
The cosmonauts then took Poisk to vacuum, opened the side spacewalk hatch for the first time in the module’s history, and inspected its seals for any signs of debris or damage from foreign objects. If necessary, replacement sealing material is available, but the inspection found no problems.
They then closed the hatch and performed further leak checks before reopening it and floating outside shortly after 11 to begin the 232nd spacewalk dedicated to station assembly and maintenance, the eighth EVA station so far this year.
The first item on the agenda was the replacement of a fluid flow regulator on the Russian Zarya module, the station’s first component, launched 20 years ago on November 20.
The cosmonauts then planned to retrieve a materials science space display pallet from the Pirs module and disconnect a telemetry cable. The cable will be reconnected to Poisk, beginning the process of ending the use of Pirs as an airlock.
After cleaning a window on the Zvezda module, the spacewalkers planned to reposition a rocket plume impingement detector and retrieve an experimental tray that helps engineers assess the impacts of micrometeoroids. Their final task is to photograph the outside of the Russian segment.
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