NASA Postpones Spacewalk Citing ‘Debris Notification’ for ISS | International Space Station
NASA indefinitely postponed a spacewalk planned for Tuesday by two astronauts outside the International Space Station, citing a “debris notification” for the orbiting research laboratory.
Astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron had to venture out of the space station to replace a failed antenna, facing what NASA officials said was a slightly elevated risk posed by debris left over from a Russian anti-satellite missile test weeks ago. .
But about five hours before the departure began, NASA said on Twitter that the spacewalk had been canceled for the time being.
“NASA received a debris notification for the space station. Due to the lack of opportunities to properly assess the risk it could pose to astronauts, the teams have decided to delay the November 30 spacewalk until more information is available, ”the space agency tweeted.
It was unclear how close the debris had come to the space station, orbiting about 250 miles (402 km) above Earth, or if it was related to the Russian missile test.
Nasa TV had planned to provide live coverage of the six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, which was scheduled to begin at 7.10 ET (12.10 GMT).
Their goal had been to remove a defective S-band radio communications antenna assembly, more than 20 years old, and replace it with a new antenna stored outside the space station.
The malfunctioning antenna recently lost its ability to send signals to Earth. Although other antennas on the space station can perform the same function, mission managers decided to install the replacement to ensure backup.
Marshburn was scheduled to work with Barron while he was stationed at the end of a robotic arm operated from inside the station by German astronaut Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency, with the help of NASA crewmate Raja Chari.
The four arrived at the space station on November 11 in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, joining two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut already on board.
Four days later, an unannounced anti-satellite missile test by Russia generated a debris field in low Earth orbit, and the seven crew members took refuge in their docked spacecraft to allow a quick getaway until danger passed. immediate, according to NASA.
The debris cloud has since dispersed, according to Dana Weigel, NASA’s deputy director for the International Space Station. But NASA calculated that the remaining fragments still posed a “slightly elevated” background risk for the space station as a whole, and a 7% higher risk of spacewalker suits being punctured, compared to before the Russia’s missile test, Weigel told reporters on Monday. .
He said NASA had yet to fully quantify the additional dangers posed by more than 1,700 larger fragments it is tracking around the station’s orbit, but the 7% higher risk to spacewalkers fell “well within” the previously seen fluctuations in “the natural environment”.
