JAKARTA – The United States Space Agency (NASA) has finally set a schedule for astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron to do a spacewalk today. Having previously been delayed due to space debris.
Marshburn and Barron were supposed to be scheduled for a spacewalk on Tuesday, November 30, but after NASA evaluated the risks posed by space debris, they ended up canceling their exit from the International Space Station (ISS).
“After receiving additional information about the late debris notification on Monday, NASA determined that the debris orbit did not pose a risk to Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron’s scheduled space travel or to International Space Station operations,” NASA said. .
“Delaying space travel provides an opportunity for NASA to evaluate the risks of a debris notification,” he added.
Compiled from Space, Thursday, December 2, however, NASA has not provided additional information about the debris in question. The two astronauts performed a spacewalk with the aim of replacing the S-band Antenna Subassembly mounted on the Port 1 frame structure outside the ISS.
NASA said the antenna recently lost its ability to send signals to Earth. According to the agency, this problem is not too serious just a limitation on the function of the ISS and does not need to be rushed. However, NASA wants to replace the antenna to have communication redundancy in case another antenna goes out.
Previously, NASA had delayed most of the time for Marshburn and Barron to make their spacewalks and complete antenna replacements as well. The two astronauts took six and a half hours to perform the spacewalk.
Spacewalk it will be Barron’s first and fifth at Marshburn. The two astronauts arrived at the orbiting laboratory on November 11 on the Crew-3 mission launched by SpaceX.
Space junk often threatens astronauts’ lives
Exactly two weeks ago, seven astronauts living and working on the ISS were forced to take cover in their spacecraft due to warnings about space debris approaching the station.
The debris became a threat shortly after the Russian military destroyed a satellite that died in a test of anti-satellite technology. A NASA official said debris from this test increased the risk of a spacesuit puncture by 7 percent.
Meanwhile, the ISS also recently had to dodge China’s space junk just hours before SpaceX launched a new crew into an orbiting lab.
According to the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, the debris was identified as coming from fragments of a Chinese satellite. The ISS, which is more than 100 meters wide, had to climb 1.2 km higher to avoid a close encounter with the Chinese space junk.
Roscosmos didn’t say how big the debris was, but did explain that its mission control specialists had calculated how to fix the ISS’s orbit to protect it from impact. To reach the maximum altitude of the ISS, they used the engines of the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft currently docked to the station.
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