The crew was first in the airlock donning their suits ahead of their endeavor.
During the spacewalk, Glover and Hopkins are tasked with working on the station s port truss or backbone where they will vent early ammonia system jumper lines and relocate one of them near the Quest airlock in order to reconnect the jumper cable to the station s cooling system and increase its efficiency.
Next, the astronauts will replace a wireless antenna assembly on the Unity connecting module, a component that links the Russian and U.S. segments of the station, and install a stiffener on the airlock s thermal cover and route cables to provide ethernet capabilities for two high-definition cameras on the port truss.
13 March 2021, 10:21 am EST By NASA astronaut space walk ( Youtube/UNIVERSE DOPE )
NASA is sending two of their astronauts to conduct the 237th spacewalk outside the International Space Station or ISS on Mar. 13.
NASA s ISS maintenance
According to CNN, the two astronauts, Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins are scheduled to embark on the fifth spacewalk of the year to carry out numerous system upgrades needed by the ISS.
The Expedition 64 engineers are running a bit behind schedule, as they were expected to exit the station s Quest airlock at a little after 7:30 a.m. ET for a mission that is expected to take around six and a half hours. The crew would first stay in the airlock donning their suits before their mission.
Two NASA astronauts conducted the 237 spacewalk on the exterior of the ISS today. The astronauts were Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins, who went outside on the
NASA flight engineer Kate Rubins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi exited the station on Friday shortly after 6:30 a.m. ET in a continuation of the effort to ready the station for solar array upgrades.
Four pairs of solar panels soak up the sun’s energy to provide electrical power to ISS systems and the arrays are now showing signs of degradation after operating for decades.
The panels are designed for a 15-year service life and the first pair was deployed in December 2000, with additional pairs delivered in 2006, 2007 and 2009.
Rubins and Noguchi will spend 6.5 hours outside the ISS to complete several tasks including venting ammonia from the Early Ammonia System and installing a stiffener device on the Quest airlock thermal cover.
Astronauts Begin Spacewalk for Solar Array Modifications
Astronaut Soichi Noguchi is pictured during a spacewalk that took place over 15 years ago during the STS-114 space shuttle mission to the space station on August 1, 2005.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi have begun their spacewalk outside the International Space Station to complete the installation of modification kits in preparation for upcoming solar array upgrades.
The spacewalkers switched their spacesuits to battery power at 6:37 a.m. EST to begin the spacewalk, which is expected to last about six and a half hours.
Watch the spacewalk on NASA TV, the NASA app, and on the agency’s website.