Space & Astronomy
Astronauts to undertake emergency spacewalk
By
T.K. RandallMay 22, 2017 ·
10 comments
Fortunately the broken relay has not placed the crew in any danger. Image Credit: NASA
The two-hour spacewalk, which is set to take place on Tuesday, will aim to repair a broken data relay box.
The box, which is understood to have failed completely, is one of two systems responsible for controlling radiators, solar arrays, cooling loops and other hardware aboard the station.
Beginning at around 8am EDT and lasting for two hours, the spacewalk will be undertaken by Expedition 51 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Jack Fischer.
Fortunately though, the broken relay is not believed to have put the crew in any danger.
"The cause of the MDM failure is not known," NASA wrote in a blog post.
"After a review of spacewalk preparations and crew readiness throughout the day Sunday, the decision was made to press ahead with the spacewalk on Tuesday."
The spacewalk will be the tenth for Whitson who recently broke the record for the longest cumulative time spent in space for a US astronaut. At 57, she is also the oldest woman ever to go in to space.
Source:
Economic Times |
Comments (10)
Tags:
Spacewalk, ISS
Please Login or Register to post a comment.