Astronauts handle explosives on daring spacewalk

Tag : Socket Wrench

Spacewalkers Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko managed, in the end,to safely disconnect the bolt from the Soyuz capsule that will betheir ride home this fall. They immediately slid it into ablast-proof container.
"It is in," one of the Russian spacewalkers called out.
"Good. Thank God," someone replied in Russian.
Before the spacewalk, flight controllers in Moscow assured Volkov and Kononenko that the bolt would not explode andthat the unprecedented job would help ensure their safe return toEarth in the Soyuz. Nonetheless, Mission Control repeatedly urgedthem to be careful as they worked near the explosives.
"Take your time," Mission Control warned. "Be careful; be careful,please."
NASA said that its own engineers were convinced the spacemen would bein no danger, and that it would be all right for them to put theexplosive bolt in the blast-proof canister and take it into the international space station for eventual return to Earth.
The past two Soyuz descents have been steep, off-course andbone-jarring, and the Russian Space Agency wants to avoid the problem when Volkov and Kononenko fly home inOctober. The capsule currently docked at the space station ferriedup the two Russians in April.
Kononenko used a serrated knife to cut away the thick shinyinsulation surrounding the bolt — a tool normally shunned byspacewalkers because of the possibility of piercing theirpressurized suits or gloves. It was a messy job, with shreds of themultilayer insulation floating every which way.
Next, the astronauts installed devices to eliminate staticelectricity, struggling at times in the small, cramped area.Finally, four hours into the spacewalk, Volkov pulled out a socketwrench and removed the 3-inch pyrotechnic bolt, one of 10 used toseparate two parts of the module during re-entry.
During Soyuz descents this past April and in October 2007, thesetwo sections did not separate properly, leading to so-calledballistic entries that subjected the crews to far higher gravityforces than normal.
Russian engineers suspect some of the explosive bolts did not fire.By disabling the bolts in this suspect location, there should be nomechanical hang-up during the October descent, officials said.
The lone American on board, Gregory Chamitoff, was inside the Soyuzfor the entire six-hour spacewalk in case an emergency required thetwo Russians to join him in the capsule. Chamitoff took books,music and a laptop computer with him to while away the time, andcould hear everything that was going on.
Each pyrotechnic bolt has the force of a large M-80 firecracker,NASA officials said.
A high-ranking flight director at Russian Mission Control outside Moscow told the crew Wednesday that the bolt could withstand shocks of upto 100 times the force of gravity and would not fire, even if theyhit it with a big hammer. "You should not be concerned at all," hesaid.
The blast-proof container is made of stainless steel. It willremain sealed, with the bolt inside, until it is returned to Earthaboard the Soyuz for analysis.
"We dream of a lot of wild things to do, and after much analysis,sometimes we do them and sometimes we don't," Mike Suffredini, NASA 's space station program manager, said earlier this week.
"We have quite a bit of confidence in this particular case thatwe're perfectly safe," Suffredini told reporters.
NASA has a keen interest in the Russian-built Soyuz capsulesbecause they sometimes transport Americans to and from the spacestation, and also serve as lifeboats. Once the space shuttles areretired in 2010, the Soyuz will be the sole means of human spacetransportation until 2015, when America's new rocketship startscarrying crews.
Before floating back inside, Volkov and Kononenko attached a patchover the cut insulation on the Soyuz. As they wrapped up theirwork, Mission Control congratulated the pair and noted that Volkovwas now "a full-blown crew commander" with his own grenade.
The two Russians will take another spacewalk Tuesday to performmuch more routine space station work.