LIVE: US EVA 33 - November 06, 2015

[Lewis007]

Thanks to everyone for the great coverage. Was at work so unfortunately couldn't follow live.

Can someone shed some light on what happened with regard to the attitude control of the ISS during the EVA? I picked up some fragments on Twitter mentioning CMGs going into saturation, ISS preparing for loss of comm., etc.

Sounded like a problem, but due to the lack of mention here I'm inclined to think it wasn't...

Thanks.

Spaceflight101 provides more info in their EVA article:
In the midst of their work, another pressing issue was approaching as the Station’s Control Moment Gyros were closing in on saturation. Desaturation firings of the thrusters are generally avoided during EVAs and the current state of the TTCR dictated, per the flight rules, that no thruster firings could take place as long as the TTCR was not cinched down or fully deployed. Mission Control decided to re-deploy the TTCR given the CMG were saturated and the crew was almost out of EVA time.

While Kjell Lindgren was getting started to drive the TTCR bolt, ISS started drifting out of its working attitude and Kimiya Yui was instructed to prepare for a loss of communications scenario in case the CMGs would remain saturated. As soon as Lindgren reported that the TTCR was fully extended, the Attitude Control System was commanded to enable assistance from the Russian thrusters to desaturate the CMGs which was successful, allowing the crew to proceed in a nominal fashion and close out the EVA in order.

See: http://spaceflight101.com/spacewalking-duo-returns-iss-cooling-system-to-service/