After delay, NASA astronauts set for spacewalk to replace faulty space station antenna -Breaking
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Brendan O’Brien and Steve Gorman
(Reuters] – NASA astronauts took to the skies on Thursday in order to fix a faulty antenna aboard the International Space Station. NASA said that there was a slight risk of orbital debris from a Russian missile attack weeks back posing a slightly elevated threat.
The 6-and-1/2-hour planned spacewalk began at 7 :10 am Eastern time (1210 GMT). To begin their work, astronauts Thomas Marshburn & Kayla Baron left an airlock in the orbiting lab about 250 miles (400 km), above Earth.
As the astronauts exited the aircraftlock, mission control informed them that the sun was rising and they would be flying over South America within a few minutes.
Following a 48 hour delay caused by an orbital debris alert, the launch of extra-vehicular activ (EVA), was delayed. NASA later determined that this postponement was inconsequential.
NASA did not provide any details about the source of the mysterious debris, but a spokesperson stated there were no signs that it could have come from pieces of the Russian satellite.
This is Marshburn’s fifth spacewalk. She, a former flight surgeon and medical doctor, has made two trips to orbit. It also marks the first spacewalk for Barron (34), a U.S. Navy submarine commander and nuclear engineer who flew her first spaceflight with NASA.
The goal is to take out a failed S-band radio communications antenna, which has been around for more than 20 year, and put it back together with another spare that was stored at the station.
NASA stated that while the space station has other antennae capable of performing similar functions, installing a replacement system will ensure an optimal level of communication redundancy.
Marshburn, who will assist Barron in his work, will position himself at the end a robotic arm controlled from within by Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency with support from Raja Chari (NASA crewmate).
Four Russian cosmonauts joined Mark Vande Hei (a NASA astronaut) on November 11 to arrive at the station in the SpaceX Crew Dragon rocket launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
Four days later, an anti-satellite missile test https://www.reuters.com/world/us-military-reports-debris-generating-event-outer-space-2021-11-15 conducted without warning by Russia generated a debris field in low-Earth orbit, forcing the seven ISS crew members to take shelter in their docked spaceships to allow for a quick getaway until the immediate danger passed, NASA said.
Dana Weigel is the NASA deputy manager for the ISS program. She says that the debris remnants from the blasted satellite have dispersed.
NASA determined that any remaining fragments pose a slightly elevated background risk to space station, with a 7% greater risk of puncturing the suits of spacewalkers, Weigel stated to reporters on Monday.
NASA found that these risk levels are within acceptable limits and began preparations for Tuesday’s spacewalk. However, mission control delayed the EVA mission by hours.
After U.S. space trackers alerted NASA of an imminent debris collision threat, NASA delayed the operation. NASA later concluded that there wasn’t a risk to the spacewalkers and station, so the replacement of the antenna was moved for Thursday morning.
According to NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan, Thursday’s spacewalk marks the 245th spacewalk for support of assembly of and maintenance of the station. It is also the first spacewalk that has been delayed by a debris alert.
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