A Year Away from Earth: A Cosmonaut's Diary, Valeri Ryumin, Molodoya Gvardiya, 1987 (translated in JPRS Report, Science & Technology, U.S.S.R.: Space, February 12, 1990); "Above the Planet: Salyut EVA Operations," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, March 1989, pp. 102-103; "Salyut 6 Mission Report: Part 2," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, p. 112; Vestnik Akademii Nauk SSSR, O.G. Gazenko and A.D. Yegorov, No. 9, September 1980, pp. 49-59 (translated in USSR Report: Space, JPRS L/9526, February 5, 1981, pp. I-11); "The Experience in Operation and Improving the Orlan-type Space Suits," I. P. Abramov, Acta Astronautica, Vol. 36, No. 1, July 1995, pp. 1-12; Mir Hardware Heritage (NASA RP 1357), David S. E Portree, March 1995.
July 30
1982 EVA 1
World EVA 44
Russian EVA 6
Space Station EVA 14
Duration: 2:33 Spacecraft/mission: Salyut 7 PE-1 Crew: Valentin Lebedev, Anatoli Berezevoi Spacewalkers: Valentin Lebedev, Anatoli Berezevoi Purpose: Replace space exposure cassettes; test assembly techniques; test upgraded Orlan-D space suit
This was the first Soviet EVA since August 1979. Lebedev and Berezevoi, the first Salyut 7 crew, wore suits sufficiently similar to the Salyut 6 Orlan-D that they received no new designation. The Salyut 7 Orlan-D did, however, incorporate improvements based on Salyut 6 EVA experience. For example, external connectors were added to supply the cosmonauts with air and cooling water through an umbilical connected to the Salyut 7 life support system while they were in the transfer compartment airlock. This permitted them to avoid using their finite suit supplies until they were ready to venture outside. In addition, the suit controls were "more conveniently located on the chest," there was an improved cooling system, and EVA duration was extended to 5 hr. July 27 was a refresher training day, when Flight Engineer Lebedev and Commander Berezevoi donned and checked out their suits. Lebedev had some trouble getting through the rear suit hatch—the struggle left him breathless—and was surprised to discover that weightlessness offered no help. The EVA took place on day 78 of the expedition. In his diary, Lebedev described EVA preparations:
After we got up at 10 p.m., we ate breakfast and did medical tests. My blood pressure was 106/86 and my pulse was 100... the result of a sleepless night. Then we re-oriented the station, deactivated the gyroscopes... and switched it over to the Kaskad [automatic stabilization control system]. After that our station was in a fixed position pointing toward the stars. We put on our undergarment accessories and prepared our transport vehicle [Soyuz-T 5] for an emergency departure... We deactivated the station, closed the hatch between the station and the transport vehicle as well as the hatch between the [transfer] and working compartments. We put on our suits. Ground Control told us to be completely dressed by 3:50 a.m.. .
Lebedev and Berezevoi dumped the transfer compartment's air into space, then opened the round hatch in the compartment's side. Escaping residual air carried dust and debris, including a pencil, through the open hatch into space. Berezevoi said later that the light outside was like "being on a street on a bright sunny day with the ground covered in pure white snow." Berezevoi spent most of the EVA standing in the hatch passing equipment to Lebedev, who positioned himself near the hatch in the Yakor foot restraint. Lebedev's activities were aimed at preparing for Salyut 7 solar array augmentation EVAs and other space assembly tasks. The Pamyat experiment tested "thermomechanical joining of pipeline sections in outer space," while Istok tested "threaded connectors" made of different materials. Lebedev also tested an experimental wrench, which worked well, but his hand went numb because his wrist pressed against his suit wrist ring during tool use. Lebedev complained that the improved Orlan-D cooling system made his feet cold. He collected and replaced 20 space exposure cassettes containing gasket rubber, insulating coatings, glass for ports and lenses, and other materials. He also replaced micrometeoroid detectors. Lebedev then described the EVA for Soviet TV viewers as he stood on Salyut 7's hull while Berezevoi televised the station's exterior and the Earth below.
"Chronology of Salyut 7 Flight: July 30," Pravda, July 31, 1982, p. 1 (translated in USSR Report: Space, No. 18, JPRS 82169, November 4, 1982, pp. 3-4); "Above the Planet: Salyut EVA Operations," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, March 1989, pp. 104; "The Hatch is Thrown Open to the Universe," Pravda, A. Pokrovski, July 31, 1982, pp. 1, 3 (translated in USSR Report: Space, No. 20, JPRS 82970, February 28, 1983, pp. 36-37); "Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Press Conference," Moscow Domestic Service, January 6, 1983 (translated in USSR Report: Space, No. 21, JPRS 83430, May 9, 1983, pp. 9-10); Diary of a Cosmonaut, Valentin Lebedev, 1990, pp. 142-144, 149-157; "Anatoli Nikolayevich Berezevoi Memoirs: 211 Days in Orbit," Aviatsiya i Kosmonavtika, No. 8, August 1983 (translated in USSR Report: Space, JPRS-USP-84-006-L, July 20, 1984, pp. 60-62).
August 19
Salyut 7/Soyuz-T 7 VE-2 launch
August 27
Salyut 7/Soyuz-T 5 VE-2 landing
November 11-16
STS-5/Columbia
December 10
Salyut 7/Soyuz-T 7 PE-1 landing
1983
April 4
STS-6/Challenger launch
April 7
1983 EVA 1
World EVA 45
U.S. EVA 39
Shuttle EVA 1
Duration: 4:10 Spacecraft/mission: STS-6 Crew: Paul Weitz, Karol Bobko, Donald Peterson, Story Musgrave Spacewalkers: Donald Peterson, Story Musgrave Purpose: Test STS EMU and EVA equipment
The first Shuttle EVA (and first U.S. EVA since February 1974) was planned to occur during STS-5, but was scrubbed because of Shuttle EMU malfunctions. Story Musgrave checked out the three suits—two primary and one backup—carried in Challenger's airlock early in the flight to provide additional time for troubleshooting should one of the 125 kg (275 lb) suits prove faulty. The Shuttle EMU is the first operational U.S. space suit built specifically for EVA. Nominal suit operating pressure is 29.7 kilopascal (4.3 psi). The EMU consists of the Primary Life Support System (PLSS) and the Space Suit Assembly (SSA). The SSA is built around the fiberglass Hard Upper Torso (HUT). Water, oxygen, electricity, and data pass between the PLSS and the HUT through an interface pad behind the astronaut's left shoulder. Most SSA components can fit men and women from the 5th to 95th percentiles of body size. There are four HUT sizes, six waist bearing sizes, and two boot sizes (the latter with six sizes of sizing insert "slippers"). There are also nine standard glove sizes, but generally astronauts opt for customized gloves when possible. This is the only customizable part of the Shuttle EMU, pointing up the importance placed on adequate gloves in EVA work. The Display and Control Module (DCM) is mounted on the front of the HUT. A microprocessor in the DCM monitors suit condition—the EMU is the first computerized space suit. The astronauts reported after the flight that, despite attempts by engineers to make the Shuttle EMU self-donning, an IV crewman was required to close the EMU waist ring. The exercise treadmill and extra EMU interfered with suit donning. Musgrave and Peterson "stood" face to face in the airlock, which lead to thrashing and noise. Despite this, they managed to doze during the 3-hr in-airlock prebreathe. The astronauts left the airlock over Borneo and assessed EMU mobility by translating aft along the handholds inside the payload bay door hinge. STS-6 CDR and Skylab 2 EVA veteran Paul Weitz and Pilot Karol Bobko observed from the aft flight deck. Musgrave climbed to the top of the payload bay aft bulkhead and looked back over Challenger's engine bells. He referred to his Weightless Environmental Training Facility (WETF) neutral buoyancy EVA training when he quipped that "this is a little deeper pool than I'm used to working in." Shuttle Program Manager Glynn Lunney said that "EVA on Shuttle is wide-ranging even when you stay in the cargo bay." Musgrave and Peterson demonstrated contingency payload bay door closure without actually closing Challenger's 18.3-m-long (60-ft-long) doors. They had difficulties rewinding the payload bay door EVA winch and considered cutting the winch cable, but Mission Control vetoed this and the cable came free. They also went through the motions of lowering a jammed satellite tilt table. Musgrave reported that his fingers were cold. According to NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight James Abrahamson, the STS-6 mission "was flown exactly as planned, including a marvelous EVA."
STS-6, 1983—Donald Peterson uses handrails and a tether slidewire to translate down Challenger's payload bay door sill toward Story Musgrave during the first Space Shuttle EVA. (S06-44-0549)
Image
Memorandum CF-4, STS-6 Crew Debriefing, Appendix VII, April 25, 1983; "Mission 6 EVA Clears Way for Untethered Operations," Aviation Week & Space Technology, April 11, 1983, p. 25; "F-Troop Adds New Spacecraft to the Fleet," Space News Roundup, April 13, 1983, p. 1; Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1979-1984, NASA SP 4024, 1990, pp. 407-408; Systems Division EVA Prep/Post Training Workbook, JSC 23901, Rev. A, November 1989; Extravehicular Mobility Unit Systems Training Workbook, JSC 19450, Mission Operations Directorate, September 1989; EVA Contingency Operations Training Workbook, 88054, Rev A, Mission Operations Directorate, March 1995.
April 9
STS-6/Challenger landing
April 20-22
Salyut 7/Soyuz-T 8
June 18-24
STS-7/Challenger
June 27
Salyut 7/Soyuz-T 9 PE-2 launch
August 30-September 5
STS-8/Challenger
September 26
Salyut 7/Soyuz-T 10a
November 1
1983 EVA 2
World EVA 46
Russian EVA 7
Space Station EVA 15
Duration: 2:50 Spacecraft/mission: Salyut 7 PE-2 Crew: Vladimir Lyakhov, Alexandr Alexandrov Spacewalkers: Vladimir Lyakhov, Alexandr Alexandrov Purpose: Augment Salyut 7 solar array
The solar arrays on the Salyut 6 space station underwent rapid degradation in their ability to produce electrical power due to UV and atomic oxygen exposure, so Salyut 7 was designed to have its arrays augmented over the course of its occupancy to restore lost capacity. Solar array extensions for the central (top) array were delivered by the automated Cosmos 1443 vehicle (March 1983). The EVA to augment the power-starved station's solar arrays was originally to have been performed by cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennadi Strekalov, but they were unable to dock their Soyuz T-8 spacecraft with Salyut 7. Strekalov and Titov's next attempt to pay a service call to Salyut 7 (Soyuz-T 10a) was stymied when their launch vehicle exploded seconds before scheduled liftoff. The Soyuz-T escape system functioned as designed, so neither Strekalov nor Titov was injured. However, the Salyut 7 power shortage grew acute, so flight controllers tapped Lyakhov and Alexandrov to perform the EVA. Some sources state that the cosmonauts practiced the procedure a dozen times in the Hydrolaboratory at Star City. During preparations, Alexandrov discovered a tear in his suit's primary pressure bladder. The cosmonauts mended this and the suit performed nominally during the EVA. For this EVA the cosmonauts used the same Orlan-D space suits that Lebedev and Berezevoi used. Lyakhov became the first Russian to perform a second EVA. Alexandrov set up a TV camera on a movable arm so flight controllers in the TsUP could monitor the EVA, then the cosmonauts took up position in foot restraints and removed the add-on array from its container. Salyut 6 EVA cosmonaut Valeri Ryumin was shift chief in the TsUP for the EVA. Forty min into the EVA they passed out of range of Soviet ground stations and tracking ships for 50 min. Much of the time out of range the cosmonauts spent in darkness. They awaited orbital sunrise so they could resume work. They then used a special "compact and convenient" winch to unfurl the add-on array along one side of the existing array. A total of 48 operations were needed to deploy the array nominally, with up to 189 operations required in contingency situations. The 5-m-long (16.4-ft-long), 1.5-m-wide (5-ft-wide) add-on array increased available power by 25 percent. Lyakhov received a reprimand from the TsUP for releasing bits of junk to watch them float away—the glittering objects could interfere with Salyut 7's star sensors.