In 2015 saw an uncommon dip on the International Space Station (ISS): Just 3 spacewalks happened in 2024, contrasted to 12 in 2023 And NASA astronauts have not done a spacewalk since June last year. That’s because of an issue with their spacesuits, among which experienced a water leak problem, leading NASA to put on hold all spacewalks for the rest of the year.
Now, however, NASA spacewalks are back. There are 2 spacewalks arranged for this month, one on Thursday, January 16, and an additional a week in the future Thursday, January 23 At a current press conference, NASA claimed it had actually examined the water leakage issue, replaced a seal and link, and tested the previously leaking fit to verify it was risk-free to utilize.
At the time, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick recognized that the spacesuits on the ISS are showing their age, with a design first developed in the 1970 s. “None of our spacesuits are unpracticed, as we would certainly claim, therefore we will anticipate to see some equipment concerns with repeated use,” Dominick stated.
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Russian cosmonauts on the ISS executed an additional spacewalk in December in 2014, as they utilize different spacesuits. Now, with NASA spacesuits back in action, the astronauts can resume their spacewalk responsibilities.
The initial spacewalk will certainly be performed by Nick Hague and Suni Williams and aims to “replace a price gyro setting up that assists supply alignment control for the terminal, mount patches to cover broken areas of light filters for an X-ray telescope called NICER (Neutron celebrity Interior Structure Explorer), and change a reflector gadget made use of for navigational information on one of the global docking adapters,” NASA said.
The 2nd spacewalk will certainly carry out extra upkeep job, like eliminating an unnecessary radio antenna assembly from the exterior of the terminal and accumulating examples from one of the airlocks to check for microbes.
If you want to watch the NASA astronauts on their very first spacewalk, it will certainly be livestreamed on NASA TELEVISION. Arranged to begin at 7 a.m. ET on January 16, it will certainly last for around 6 and a half hours, and you can tune right into the stream start at 5: 30 a.m. ET on NASA’s web site.
