NASA resumed spacewalks on Tuesday, November 15, after almost an eighth-month hold on extravehicular activities outside the International Space Station (ISS). But it will not be the only spacewalk to take place this week as it is only the first in a series of end-of-the-year spacewalks.
NASA astronauts Josh A. Cassada and Francisco Rubio were assigned to Tuesday's spacewalk to conduct maintenance work. A second spacewalk is scheduled on Thursday, November 17, in which two cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev an d Dmitri Petelin will exit the space station at 9 am ET to work outside Russia's laboratory module.
NASA Astronauts Begin Spacewalk Outside the ISS
NASA astronauts Cassada and Rubio began their spacewalk at 9:14 am ET and ended at 4:25 pm ET. which lasted for 7 hours and 11 minutes, CNN reported. Cassada wore the spacesuit with red stripes and was designated as extravehicular crew member 1, while Rubio was designated as extravehicular crew member 2 and wore an unmarked spacesuit.
The extravehicular activity on Tuesday was about assembling a mounting bracket on the starboard on the side of the ISS's truss against the backdrop of the views of Earth. The mounting bracket was delivered to the space station on November 9 aboard a Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft.
It will be used for future installation of the Space Station Rollout Solar Array (iRosa), according to NASA. The first two rollout solar arrays were installed on June 2021 outside the space station. About six iROSAs are planned to be installed in the ISS to boost its power generation by over 30% once they all become operational.
Watch the breathtaking video of the recent spacewalk below as shared on the official Twitter page of the ISS:
Incredible views as Cassada and Rubio work on installing the right struts for upcoming solar array upgrades. They will start cleanup and head back to the airlock after installing the right mid strut. 🔧🌏 pic.twitter.com/kM1tw7ng50
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) November 15, 2022
More Spacewalk To Come This Year
Two Russian cosmonauts will also do a spacewalk outside the ISS to work on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. The last spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts was in September when cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev ventured outside the space station to continue the installation of Europe's Robotic Arm, as previously reported by Gizmodo.
The last time NASA astronauts conducted a spacewalk was on March 23 this year when astronauts Raja Chari and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer were installing hoses on a radiator beam valve module, Yahoo! News reported.
But Maurer noted that there was dampness in his visor. They successfully completed the spacewalk although NASA declared it a "close call" and halted all upcoming spacewalks at that time.
After receiving the green light to continue spacewalks in the last few months of 2022, NASA immediately booked more to continue the delayed extravehicular activities.
They have two more scheduled spacewalks on Monday, November 28, and Thursday, December 1, that will focus on the continuation of the installation of iROSA. The new solar arrays will increase the total available power for the space station from 160 kilowatts up to 215 kilowatts.
Check out more news and information on Spacewalk in Science Times.
