Two NASA astronauts will perform the 237th spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Saturday.
Astronauts Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins embark on the fifth spacewalk of the year to perform various system upgrades.
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Initially, they were slightly behind schedule, but Expedition 64 engineers would leave the station’s Quest airlock at just after 7:30 a.m. ET for a mission expected to last about six and a half hours.
The crew were the first in the airlock to put on their suits before going to work.
During the spacewalk, Glover and Hopkins are tasked with working on the station’s gate bundle – or ‘spine’ – where they will blow off early jumper lines from the ammonia system and move one of them to the Quest airlock to rejoin the launch cable. closing on the cooling system of the station and increasing its efficiency.
The duo will also connect cables for the station’s science lab Bartolomeo platform Parking Position Interface (PAPOS) – an external platform for hosting payloads – which will continue the work from a spacewalk on January 27, replacing a cable for an amateur radio system. .
Next, the astronauts will replace a wireless antenna unit on the Unity link module, a component connecting the Russian and US segments of the station, and install a ‘stiffener’ on the thermal cover of the airlock and route cables to provide Ethernet capabilities. offer for two high definition cameras on the port side.
This is Glover’s fourth spacewalk in his career and Hopkins’ fifth.
Hopkins carries a high-definition camera on his helmet to provide a clear view of the Columbus module connectors.
This is the second spacewalk this month.
On March 5, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi spent as much time outside the Columbus module as part of preparing for solar panel upgrades later this year.
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Solar panels absorb the sun’s energy to provide electrical power to ISS systems and are showing signs of deterioration.
Coverage of the event will be streamed live on NASA TV and feeds can be accessed through the agency’s app, YouTube, and social media platforms.