US Spacewalk 97: Astronauts Remove Failed ISS Space-To-Ground Antenna

During a 6 hours 23 minutes US Spacewalk 97 (or Extravehicular Activivity, EVA 97) which began at 1229 UTC outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday (Aug. 18), two Expedition 75 crew members NASA's Anil Menon (EV-1) and European Space Agency (ESA)'s Sophie Adenot (EV-2) successfully removed a failed Space-to-Ground antenna from the orbital station's Z1 truss.

With assistance from inside the station by NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway operating the Canadarm2 robotic arm and Jessica Meir assisting with suit-ups, the primary goal of the EVA was to replace a high-speed communications antenna that had failed in November, disrupting high-bandwidth data transmission between the ISS and Mission Control Houston. Though the station continues to operate with a fully functional Space-to-Ground antenna, which provides high-data rate communications with NASA’s Tracking Data and Relay Satellites and control centers across the world, including the agency’s Mission Control Center in Houston.

During the spacewalk, Menon and Adenot completed the removal of the failed Space-to-Ground antenna and performed a long-duration tie down of the unit on the space station truss structure. The crew members needed more time than expected to disconnect electrical cables and loosen bolts, delaying work to install a replacement antenna.

"We got into this with the mindset that we wanted everything to go perfectly," said Menon as the spacewalk came to an end. "Things were a lot different than expected, but what I would say that I am really impressed with is that all of those contingencies were well thought out."

Mission managers will decide whether to add the task of installing the replacement antenna to a spacewalk already planned for next Tuesday (Aug. 25) or to leave it for a later outing.

"We are looking at times," radioed Mission Control to the spacewalkers. "We are going to go directly to the long-duration tie-down of this SGANT on the Z-1 truss."

Near the end of the spacewalk, the crew also performed clean up tasks and an inspection and swap of a portable foot restraint near the Quest airlock. Their EVA ended at 1852 UTC once they were back inside the U.S. Quest airlock and re-pressurization began.

Spacewalk 97 was the first EVA for Adenot, making her the first female and fifth citizen of France to perform a spacewalk after Jean-Loup Chrétien, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, Philippe Perrin, and Thomas Pesquet. This also marked Menon's second EVA, bringing his total spacewalking time to 12 hours and 50 minutes.

The EVA is the fifth conducted out of the ISS this year, the second for Expedition 75, the 97th using U.S. extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) spacesuits and overall the 282nd EVA to date in support of ISS assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.