The spacewalks will help continue upgrades for the space station in orbit. Rubins and Glover are NASA astronauts, and Noguchi is an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Coverage for the February 28 spacewalk will begin at 4:30 a.m. ET, and the astronauts are expected to begin at 6 a.m. ET. Coverage of the spacewalk on March 5 begins at 5:30 a.m. ET, and the astronauts expect to leave the hatch around 7 a.m. ET.
If that Sunday spacewalk seems earlier than previous spacewalks – especially given that it takes place on weekends – well, it is. But “it’s not really a Monday through Friday program,” Kenny Todd, deputy manager of the International Space Station program, recalled at a press conference Wednesday.
These will be the 235th and 236th spacewalks in the station’s history.
For the first spacewalk, Rubins and Glover will team up to prepare for upcoming solar panel upgrades by mounting and installing modification kits. While the station’s current solar panels are still working properly, they are in the process of being downgraded. This deterioration is expected because they only last about 15 years and were installed in December 2000 – so they basically outlived the warranty.
Brand new solar panels will be installed later this year for six of the arrays currently on the station, increasing the station’s power from 160 kilowatts to 215 kilowatts, NASA said. The solar panels will be launched to the space station in a SpaceX vehicle in June.
During the February 28 spacewalk, Rubins will be Crew Member 1 in the suit with red stripes and Glover will be Crew Member 2 in a suit with no stripes.
Rubins and Noguchi will team up for the March 5 spacewalk to complete a number of tasks, including removing ammonia from the Early Ammonia System, replacing a wireless video transceiver, and installing a “stiffener” on the thermal cover of the Quest airlock. This prevents the cover from blowing out when the atmosphere is released when the hatch is opened.
Glover began working on this during his last spacewalk by adding a stronger magnet to keep the lid closed.
Rubins will be crew member 1 in the red striped suit on March 5 and Noguchi will be crew member 2 in the stripe-less suit.
All three crew members are currently experienced spacewalkers. Glover has already been on two spacewalks since arriving at the space station in November. This will be his third.
Rubins previously performed spacewalks during her first rotation on the space station in 2016, so these will be her third and fourth spacewalks. And Noguchi will add a fourth spacewalk to his career; He previously performed three spacewalks during his shuttle flight in 2005 to assist with repairs to the space station.