[FPSPACE] Critical spacewalk Saves of the Past

[Geert Sassen]

Hubble repairs were certainly spectaculair and very ingenious, however 
these were more or less planned long before the mission started, same 
with the solar max. With the Skylab, Salyut, and Mir repairs, as well as 
with the present ISS EVA we are talking about EVA's and repairs which 
were not planned and (more or less) have to be improvised and designed 
during the mission, which is a very difficult thing to do as you are 
working with astronauts/cosmonauts who are asked to do something for 
which they did not receive exact training before the mission.

In my opinion one of the most dangerous items is that Parazynski will be 
very far away from the airlock, too far in fact to bring him back to 
safety should his spacesuit fail (his emergency supply lasts only 30 
minutes which will not be sufficient). I don't know whether there have 
ever been EVA's where this safety-feature was waved away (even during 
the moon-rover missions, they were always within 30 minutes driving of 
the LM, only if both the rover and a PLSS failed they would have a big 
problem), I have great faith in mission control and the guys planning 
this repair but they certainly work very close to the edge...


Chris Faranetta wrote:
> What about Hubble repairs?
>
> CF
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org
> [mailto:fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org] On Behalf Of Geert Sassen
> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 5:59 PM
> To: Jim Oberg
> Cc: fpspace at friends-partners.org
> Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Critical spacewalk Saves of the Past
>
> Good day,
>
> I would add the repair of the Soyuz TM 9 thermal blankets by 
> Solovyov/Balandin (the same spacewalk where they damaged the Kwant 2 
> hatch and had to use the 2nd compartment as emergency airlock, almost 
> depleting their Orlan suits). Should be worth a third place on your
> list.
>
> The Mir/Kvant docking fouling spacewalk was more or less repeated early 
> on in the ISS construction (with one of the Progress ships if I remember
>
> correctly?).
>
> The internal EVA on Mir after the Spektr de-pressurization might also
> count?
>
> And, certainly, freeing the stuck KRT-10 10 mtr dish antenna from the 
> aft dockingport of Salyut 6 by Lyakhov/Ryumin on Soyuz 34.
>
> Jim Oberg wrote:
>   
>> Critical spacewalk Saves of the Past
>>
>> If I were to compile a list of critical
>> 'spacewalk saves' of the past, to see how this
>> array repair rates, I'd include:
>>
>> 1973 -- Skylab solar wing deploy
>>
>> 1984 -- Salyut-7 propulsions system re-routing
>>
>> 1987 -- Mir/Kvant docking fouling
>>
>> 1991 -- Three-person satellite grab on third try...
>>
>> What other such events should rate as high, or higher?
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>>
>>   
>>     
>
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