The crew of the next, 65th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) began to practice spacewalks, reported on Thursday, November 5, at the Cosmonaut Training Center (CTC) for extreme training.
“While cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov are preparing on board the ISS for a spacewalk, scheduled for November 18, 2020, their colleagues Oleg Novitsky and Peter Dubrov are working out the cyclogram of extravehicular activity (EVA) on Earth,” the message says.
In the CTC hydro laboratory, where extravehicular activity is simulated, as part of the upcoming flight, cosmonauts Novitsky and Dubrov performed underwater operations EVA-51 and EVA-52 on the model of the new ISS Nauka module – the actions of cosmonauts on the outer surface of the ISS will be associated with the station segment.
Both spacewalks are aimed at working with the European Robotic Arm (ERA), which will need to be transferred from the transport position to the working position. ERA is a remotely controlled space-based robotic arm created by the European Space Agency for the assembly and maintenance of the ISS Russian segment.
The commander of the new expedition, Novitsky, has already completed two space flights, but will work in open space for the first time. The other two members of the new crew – Dubrov and Sergei Korsakov – do not yet have experience in space flights.
As part of training in the hydro laboratory of the CTC, the cosmonauts are planned to have three dives.
On October 12, Roscosmos announced that the launch of the Nauka multipurpose module on the ISS is planned in 2021. Six months after its launch, the Prichal node module will be added to the station.
The modules were previously scheduled to launch in May 2020. In December 2019, Rogozin announced a possible postponement of the event to 2021.
In total, Russia plans to launch three new modules to the ISS: “Science”, the “Prichal” nodal module and a scientific and power module.
The modules are capable of producing oxygen for six people, regenerating water from urine. Nauka will add to the Russian cosmonauts a second toilet, a cabin for a third crew member, and a European manipulator ERA for remote crew work in outer space.
Earlier, on October 31, it was reported that the orbital altitude of the ISS will be increased to 1.1 km and will be about 419.43 km above the Earth’s surface. Orbit correction is scheduled for November 12.