What to Know About This Week’s Spacewalks Outside the ISS

After an almost 8-month maintain on extravehicular actions exterior the International Space Station (ISS), NASA is resuming its spacewalks on Tuesday with plans to put in new photo voltaic arrays. But that’s not the one spacewalk set to happen exterior the ISS this week.

NASA Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio will kick-off the house station upkeep work on Tuesday at 8 a.m. ET. On Thursday, a second housestroll is deliberate. Two cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin are scheduled to exit the ISS at 9 a.m. ET to work exterior Russia’s laboratory module.

During Tuesday’s spacewalk, Cassada and Rubio are set to spend about seven hours exterior the ISS assembling a mounting bracket that will likely be used for the longer term set up of the Space Station Rollout Solar Array (iRosa), according to NASA. This would be the pair’s first time performing a spacewalk.

NASA will start broadcasting the spacewalk dwell at 6:30 a.m. ET on NASA TV, in addition to the company’s app and website. You can even tune in by means of the feed under.

On Thursday, two Russian cosmonauts will exit the ISS to work on the skin of the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. NASA’s protection for Thursday’s spacewalk will start at 9 a.m. ET.

The final spacewalk by Russia’s house company passed off in September when cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev ventured exterior the ISS to proceed the set up of Europe’s Robotic Arm. The pair’s first try at doing so ended prematurely as a consequence of a spacesuit battery glitch.

On the opposite hand, NASA’s final try at finishing a spacewalk passed off on March 23 when NASA astronaut Raja Chari and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer had been putting in hoses on a radiator beam valve module exterior the house station. However, astronaut Maurer famous water and dampness inside his visor.

The pair had been capable of full their spacewalk, however NASA later declared the incident as a “close-call” and instantly halted all upcoming spacewalks till the problem was investigated. The house company just lately determined to resume the extravehicular exercise after wrapping up its investigations into the leaky spacesuit.

After giving spacewalks the inexperienced gentle, NASA instantly booked extra. NASA’s subsequent two spacewalks are scheduled to happen on Monday, November 28, and Thursday, December 1 to proceed the set up of iRosa. The new photo voltaic arrays are designed to extend the house station’s energy era functionality by 30%, growing the station’s complete out there energy from 160 kilowatts to as much as 215 kilowatts, according to NASA.

More: Russian Cosmonaut Forced to Abandon Spacewalk Due to Spacesuit Power Malfunction