Help, it is Christmas!

Spacewalk to move Mobile Transporter. Credits: ESA/NASA

Columbus Control Centre’s flight director Tom Uhlig on “Murphy’s law 2”:

Actually, I wanted this blog to begin with “Britannia Rules the space” to paraphrase a motto we learnt in history classes: “Britannia rules the waves”. I thought this was apt as we have a European on the International Space Station again: Tim Peake, the first British ESA astronaut can now be heard in his typical British accent on the space-to-ground radio.

Ready for the spacewalk. Credits: ESA/NASA

But it was not to be: A new law I am developing for which I don’t have a name yet – Murphy’s law 2 maybe? – states that in manned spaceflight everything always goes wrong when you can do the least to correct it. Particularly before Christmas when support teams have signed off for the next two weeks, and when other colleagues not on shift have disappeared for the holiday. It is often around this point that things go wrong… Two years ago, we experienced this law: one of the two large cooling circuits of the Space Station stopped working and our heat exchangers were put into a bypass configuration to take away the heat load of the failed loop. But by putting the system in bypass mode the fear arose that the water might have frozen in the now stationary heat exchangers – and potentially have damaged those devices…

And now to this year: the Mobile Transporter that can move the Space Station’s robot arm along the large truss suddenly got stuck last week. A problem? Yes, a big one… After all, what would happen when a supply spacecraft arrives at the Space Station – would the Mobile Transporter move then? Would it cause damage? How about changes to the inertia of the International Space Station?

So another “Christmas holiday” began at the Columbus Control Centre…

Spacewalk to move the Mobile Transporter. Credits: ESA/NASA

In all haste an unplanned spacewalk out of nowhere was scheduled for the Monday: Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra would leave the space station and take care of the Mobile Transporter.

Here Tim Peake supported from inside the Space Station. Simultaneously, a Progress supply spacecraft was launched towards the Space Station to dock on 23 December – hopefully with an intact Mobile Transporter. Oh yes – and in the night before the spacewalk we had to deal with an increased solar activity, but fortunately below the critical spacewalk limit.

Conclusion: Christmas is approaching! From the Columbus Control Centre we wish you all a wonderful and blessed Christmas – especially a quiet one …

Back inside after over three hours spacewalk. Credits: ESA/NASA