Spacewalks
Taikonauts Ye Guangfu and Li Cong opened the hatch of the Wentian science module of the Tiangong Chinese Space Station at 0721 GMT on 3 July to begin their spacewalk. Their mission was to conduct inspections of EVA equipment and the station facilities along with continuing with the installation of space debris protection devices to the CSS. Their spacewalk (the 16th EVA from the CSS) ended after 6 hours and 30 minutes.
Commander Ye Guangfu and crewmates Li Cong and Li Guangsu have been abord the station since Shenzhou-18 docked with the station on 25 April. Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu had already completed a national-record EVA after nearly 8.5 hours outside the space station on 28 May.
Shenzhou-18 astronauts Li Cong (above) and Ye Guangfu performing extravehicular activities. Courtesy: Beijing Aerospace Control Center via Xinhua
Space station movements
The Cygnus NG-20 cargo ship with its load of rubbish/trash was unberthed from the Unity module of the International Space Station (ISS) at 0800 GMT on 12 July and fully released by the robot arm at 1101 GMT.
Progress MS-26 made burn at 0951 GMT on 31 July to raise itself and ISS. Burn lasted 1233.3 seconds and increased the station’s altitude for 3.1 km.
Starliner (CST-100) Test, having been docked to the forward-facing port of the ISS’s Harmony module since 6 June despite its helium leaks and with five of its 28 reaction-control thrusters having malfunctioned (all but one was later fixed) is now partly stranded. The stay has been lengthened from its originally planned week to over two months. Astronauts Wilmore and Williams remain on the station while NASA and Boeing examine the issues on the craft and their safety implications for the return of the crew.
