Two NASA astronauts completed a 6-1/2 hour spacewalk to replace a faulty antenna.
Two NASA astronauts completed a 6-1/2-hour walk on Thursday to replace a faulty antenna on the International Space Station, a mission that NASA says poses a slightly higher risk. caused by orbital debris left over from a Russian missile test a few weeks ago.
Astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron exited an orbital lab windmill 250 miles (400 km) from Earth to begin their work at 6:15 a.m. Eastern time (1115 GMT). , an hour ahead of schedule.
“Extra-Vehicle Activity” (EVA) entails a 48-hour delay prompted by a separate orbital debris warning – believed to be the first delay in more than two decades in the space station’s history – which NASA later deemed unimportant.
The origin of the newly discovered debris left behind by NASA is unclear. A spokesman said there was no indication it came from debris from a defunct satellite that Russia blew up in a rocket test last month.
Thursday’s outing was the fifth hike by Marshburn, 61, a medical doctor and former flight surgeon with two previous trips to orbit and the first for Barron, 34. , a United States Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer on her maiden flight for NASA.
“It was amazing,” Barron told Marshburn afterward.
During the spacewalk, they removed a faulty S-band radio communications antenna assembly, now more than 20 years old, and replaced it with a spare stored outside the space station. pillar.
The space station is equipped with other antennas that can perform similar functions, but installing an alternative system ensures an ideal level of communication redundancy, NASA said.
Marshburn worked with Barron while positioning the end of a robotic arm internally maneuvered by German astronaut Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency, with help from NASA crew Raja Chari.
Four people arrived at the space station on November 11 in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, along with two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut, Mark Vande Hei, was in on the orbiting outpost.
Four days later, an anti-satellite missile test conducted by Russia without warning created a debris field in low Earth orbit, forcing the seven ISS crew members to take shelter in the spacecraft. berths to allow a quick escape until the immediate danger passes, NASA said.
According to Dana Weigel, deputy director of NASA’s ISS program, the cloud of debris left over from the exploding satellite has dispersed since then.
NASA has calculated that the remaining debris continues to pose a “slightly high” background risk to the entire space station, and that the risk of puncturing spacewalkers’ suits is 7% higher than before the crash. Russian missile test, Weigel told reporters on Monday.
NASA determined those levels of risk were within an acceptable range and conducted preparations for Tuesday’s walk as originally planned, only for mission control to delay the EVA mission hours. before it starts.
The operation was postponed after NASA received a notice from US military space trackers warning of the threat of collision with the newly discovered debris. NASA then concluded that there was no risk to the spacewalker or the station, and the antenna replacement was rescheduled for Thursday morning.
NASA spokesman Gary Jordan said Thursday’s exercise marked the 245th walk to assist with space station assembly and maintenance, and the first to be documented that was delayed due to warnings. debris, Gary Jordan said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
