RUSSIAN SPACEWALK AT ISS (2 OF 4), Dec 14-15, 2022, Earth orbit, 9:20 pm ET

Update, December 14, 9:48 pm ET:  The spacewalk was cancelled by Russian mission control because of an observed leak, perhaps of coolant, in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Prokopyev and Petelin were suited up and in the Poisk airlock waiting to go out, but were just told the EVA is cancelled.  Russia is still trying to determine the nature of the leak and the implications for the integrity of the Soyuz spacecraft, which delivered those two cosmonauts and NASA’s Frank Rubio and is intended to bring them home. Particles emanating from the Soyuz capsule are quite visible in NASA TV coverage ongoing right now.

Update, December 8:  The NASA TV schedule now has this listed for December 14, with the spacewalk beginning at 9:20 pm ET and NASA TV coverage starting at 9:00 pm EST.  These spacewalks last about 7 hours so will run over into the early hours of December 15 Eastern Standard Time.

Update, November 29:  Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com tweets that the spacewalk has been postponed again because of spacesuit problems.  The NASA TV schedule now does not show either this or the December 21 spacewalk.

Next Russian spacewalk opportunity aboard #ISS on December 6 is cancelled due to failure to resolve spacesuit problem.
DETAILS (subscription): https://t.co/KZE3WlovI2 pic.twitter.com/e5tYNL5G7g

— Anatoly Zak (@RussianSpaceWeb) November 29, 2022

Update, November 27:  The NASA TV schedule now shows Russian spacewalks on December 6 and December 21, which were the dates for the 3rd and 4th spacewalks. The times for both are TBD.  The descriptions indicate they are doing the work planned for the second and fourth in this series:

Tuesday, Dec. 6 
TBD – Coverage of Russian Spacewalk 56 to relocate a radiator from the Rassvet module to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module at the International Space Station (spacewalk scheduled to begin at TBD and will last around 7 hours) (All Channels)

Wednesday, Dec. 21 
TBD – Coverage of Russian Spacewalk 57 to deploy a radiator on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module at the International Space Station (spacewalk scheduled to begin at TBD and will last around 7 hours) (All Channels)

Update, November 25:  The spacewalk was scrubbed after a backup pump in Prokopyev’s spacesuit coolig systm failed.  They had not exited the space station yet.  The schedule for this and the next two spacewalks is uncertain.

Original Entry: Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin aboard the International Space Station will conduct a series of four spacewalks on November 17, November 25, December 6 and December 21, 2022.

NASA TV will provide live coverage of all four and describes them as follows:

“During the spacewalks, Expedition 68’s Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin will venture outside of the Poisk module to oversee the transfer of a radiator, an airlock, and to make electrical and hydraulic connections. Inside the orbital complex, cosmonaut Anna Kikina will control the ESA (European Space Agency) European robotic arm on Nauka to move the radiator and the airlock into position for the spacewalkers.”

Thursday, Nov. 17

9 a.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for spacewalk to prepare the radiator on Rassvet for the move to Nauka.

Friday, Nov. 25

6 a.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for spacewalk to move the radiator from Rassvet to Nauka using ESA’s robotic arm, and make electrical and hydraulic connections.

Tuesday, Dec. 6

2 a.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for spacewalk to move the Rassvet airlock from Rassvet to Nauka and install it using ESA’s robotic arm.

Thursday, Dec. 21

6:30 p.m. – NASA TV coverage begins to deploy newly relocated radiator on Nauka.

Three U.S. spacewalks also are taking place on November 15 and 28 and December 1.  See our separate calendar entries for those.