Russian spacewalk hampered by technical issues

    Commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy promptly completed the main objective of Friday’s spacewalk -- the installation of a pair of high-fidelity cameras as part of a Canadian commercial endeavor designed to downlink Earth observation imagery – but had to remove them later due to an unspecified problem that prevented telemetry from being received on the ground by Russian flight controllers.

     As planned, Kotov and Ryazanskiy attached the two cameras on a combination biaxial pointing platform and spacewalk workstation that was installed on the service module during a spacewalk on Nov. 9. Kotov and Ryazanskiy also installed a foot restraint to the workstation.

     After routing data and telemetry cables for the medium resolution camera, Kotov jettisoned the cable reel.

     When the flight control team at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow did not see the expected telemetry and electrical connectivity from the medium and high resolution cameras, Kotov and Ryazanskiy were directed to remove the cameras and return them to the airlock for further analysis.  The spacewalkers also were instructed to take detailed photographs of the electrical connectors mated earlier for additional review.

     The spacewalkers also removed and jettisoned equipment installed during a 2008 spacewalk. The equipment was designed to monitor seismic effects using high-energy particle streams in the near-Earth environment. Kotov and Ryazanskiy replaced it with  hardware for a more sophisticated earthquake-monitoring experiment. 

     Because of the issue in activating the cameras, Kotov and Ryazanskiy did not have time to complete their planned tasks, which included jettisoning a frame that once held three Micro-Particles Capturer and Space Environment Exposure Device units for a Japanese space exposure study.

     Friday's spacewalk eclipsed the record for the longest Russian spacewalk set by flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin, who conducted a seven-hour, 29 minute excursion on Aug. 16. 

     With the completion of his fifth spacewalk, Kotov now has 30 hours and 43 minutes of spacewalking.  Ryazanskiy has completed 13 hours and 57 minutes during his two spacewalks.

     This was the 177th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance, totaling 1,115 hours, 44 minutes, and the 11th spacewalk this year.

     Friday’s Russian spacewalk was not related to a recent pair of U.S. spacewalks to replace a faulty ammonia coolant pump module.  Flight controllers in Houston’s Mission Control successfully restarted the new pump Tuesday night following two spacewalks – including a seven-hour, 30-minute excursion Tuesday -- by Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins to replace a degraded pump module on the station’s starboard truss.