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Astronaut Thomas Pesquet working on the ISS
Photo: HANDOUT / AFP
The US space agency recently emphasized that her husband was never "in danger".
Still, the details of the recent repair to the International Space Station (ISS) sound quite nerve-wracking.
The French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and his US colleague Shane Kimbrough continued their field work on the ISS after a technical problem and a break of several hours.
Kimbrough returned to the side of his French colleague on Wednesday after temporarily returning to the space station due to a malfunction in his astronaut suit.
The duo had previously left the ISS for an outdoor assignment lasting several hours to install a new solar panel.
The mission, originally scheduled for six hours, is risky in many ways.
After about four and a half hours in weightlessness, Kimbroughs suit experienced interruptions in the transmission of surveillance data to the crew.
A sudden increase in pressure in the suit's cooling system was also indicated.
The astronaut then returned to the station airlock.
Meanwhile Pesquet dangled with his feet attached to a robot arm waiting in space.
The mission finally resumed after the control data returned to normal and stabilized.
During their work, the astronauts are around 400 kilometers above the earth.
They are secured in three ways, including a cable that connects them continuously to the ISS.
New panel is 19 meters long
The two astronauts have been out in the field since they arrived at the ISS in late April.
Pesquet and Kimbrough have already completed two field assignments together.
Unlike then, this time Pesquet is in command.
According to NASA expert Pooja Jesrani, your current mission is "quite complex".
"We do not want to make mistakes and destroy the material that cost a million dollars (830,000 euros)," said Pesquet before the start of the field.
It's about the work of hundreds of people.
The new awning is to be installed on the port side of the ISS, which is the size of a soccer field.
The panel is 19 meters long.
Suit feels like a "tin can"
Working in a space suit is "extremely difficult," said Hervé Stevenin from the training team at the European Space Agency ESA.
Holding a tool is like squeezing a tennis ball hundreds of times in six hours.
During the entire mission, the astronauts were wedged into their spacesuits like a "tin can."
Experts include possible dangers that the spacesuits could leak, for example through the impact of micro-meteorites.
The cooling system can penetrate the ventilation of the spacesuits, as happened with the Italian Luca Parmitano in 2013.
jok / AFP
