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Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara worked outside the International Space Station Wednesday to exchange a bearing assembly in certainly one of the lab’s solar array rotation mechanisms. However the task took longer than expected they usually were unable to retrieve a failed electronics box as planned.
It was the primary spacewalk for Moghbeli and O’Hara, the fourth all-female tour and the primary such outing since January 2020 when Jessica Meir and Christina Koch accomplished their third EVA, or extra-vehicular activity.
The yr’s twelfth spacewalk began at 8:05 a.m. EDT when Moghbeli and O’Hara switched their spacesuits to battery power.
The 2 major goals of the 269th station spacewalk were to exchange a degraded bearing assembly in certainly one of the station’s two solar array rotation mechanisms and to retrieve a failed communications component stored on an external platform so it might be shipped back to Earth for repairs.
O’Hara focused on replacing the bearing assembly within the station’s left-side solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, which rotates outboard solar arrays to maximise energy production. Each SARJ is supplied with 12 bearing assemblies that clamp onto a rotating 10.5-foot-wide “race ring.”
While O’Hara was working to unbolt the bearing assembly, Moghbeli removed a no-longer-needed handling fixture to make way for the longer term installation of a roll-out solar array blanket.
She was within the technique of taking pictures of the world where the brand new arrays can be installed when flight controllers asked her to assist hold O’Hara in place while she struggled to loosen tight bolts holding the bearing assembly in place.
By the point the degraded bearing assembly was finally removed, the crew was about an hour behind schedule. O’Hara used a grease gun to lubricate the race ring while Moghbeli made her solution to a close-by external camera to reposition an out-of-position ethernet cable.
After helping stabilize O’Hara while she used an influence tool to tighten the bolts holding the alternative bearing assembly in place, Moghbeli floated over to an external storage platform where the failed S-band radio communications component was stowed.
She and O’Hara originally planned to remove the unit and convey it back to the station airlock for eventual return to Earth. But given time lost installing the bearing assembly, flight controllers opted to have Moghbeli simply prep the unit for removal during a future spacewalk. O’Hara assisted her toward the top of the EVA.
At one point earlier within the spacewalk, Moghbeli mentioned that she couldn’t discover a tool bag she had tethered to a close-by handrail. She was told to search for it later, but it surely wasn’t immediately known if she found it or if it in some way got here loose and floated away.
In any case, the astronauts returned to the Quest airlock and closed out the 6-hour 42-minute spacewalk at 1:47 p.m.
“Congratulations to you each in your first EVAs,” astronaut Anne McClain radioed from mission control. “You and the entire team here safely executed a posh and international mission. Nicely done.”
Moghbeli thanked the crew’s trainers, adding “I’d also prefer to thank my family and friends. This can be a very special moment for me, going out on my first spacewalk, with my good friend and someone I actually look as much as, Loral. So thanks for giving me this. … I actually think it takes a village, and I’ve got a powerful village.”
In a final call out to her twin two-and-a-half-year-old girls, she added: “Zelda and Estelle, mommy loves you, and I hope it is a reminder that dreams can turn into reality.”