Sometimes the people who look after a building are a little behind on maintenance. Sometimes the same thing happens to the people who look after the International Space Station.
Two astronauts are preparing for a spacewalk this weekend in preparation for the upcoming replacement of the solar panels designed to last for 15 years and installed on the ISS more than 20 years ago, according to NASA.
Flight technicians Kate Rubins and Victor Glover will leave the ISS for the spacewalk. They will assemble and install equipment for the upcoming upgrades that will both replace current deteriorating solar panels and increase the station’s available power from 160 kW to 215 kW, according to NASA. A SpaceX rocket will deliver new arrays later this year.
Flight engineers Kate Rubins and Victor Glover will leave the ISS on Sunday for the spacewalk.
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This will be the third spacewalk for both astronauts.
“The space crew has been very busy this week,” Flight Director Marcos Flores said at a press conference on Wednesday. “They have worked a lot to ensure that all of their procedures are reviewed and all of their training is complete.”
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The astronauts will disembark at approximately 6 a.m. EST on Sunday. The spacewalk is expected to take about six and a half hours.
The spacewalk on Sunday is the first of two upcoming maintenance spacewalks planned for the ISS. On March 5, Rubins will be on the road again with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to remove ammonia, among other things. They will also install a “stiffener” on the thermal cover of the water seal.
The spacewalk on Sunday is the first of two upcoming maintenance spacewalks planned for the ISS. (REUTERS / NASA / Press release)
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These are the 235th and 236th spacewalks from the ISS.
While some of the astronauts aboard the ISS prepared for their upcoming spacewalks, others were unpacking four tons of cargo arriving on a Northrup Grumman Cygnus supply ship, NASA said. Equipment delivered to the station includes supplies, new scientific hardware such as biological sample freezers, and other equipment.