Spacewalking astronauts completed the first round of prep work Friday for new solar panels, part of a major power upgrade at the International Space Station.
Kate Rubins from NASA and Soichi Noguchi from Japan added climbing hooks and struts for the improved sunshades that are due to arrive in June. They also tightened sticky bolts that blocked the spacecraft Sunday and left some duties unperformed.
Near the end of the seven-hour spacewalk, Rubins pointed at the index finger of her right glove, where she had previously been told there was a bit of skinning and maybe a tiny hole in the sky. -outside series.
“I don’t know what to think of the dish. But it’s just kind of a sharp hole, ”she told Mission Control.
Rubins said she was “a little worried” about going too far from Noguchi because of her glove, and he went with her back to the forest. Mission Control said it was retiring at that point and called on the astronauts to jump off extra jobs.
NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Rob Navias, said Rubins’ suit weight was perfectly maintained throughout the spacecraft.
“She was never in any danger,” he said in an email.
At the request of Mission Control, crews Victor Glover photographed the basin while Rubins was still in her space suit.
NASA is raising the space station’s power grid to accommodate more astronauts and experiments, now that SpaceX is launching crews and Boeing should be there by the end of the year. The eight solar panels have declined over time; the oldest were launched 20 years ago.
The six new sunshades – smaller but more efficient – will fit the older ones and boost the station’s power capacity by up to 30%. Boeing is providing the panels, which will be launched in pairs with SpaceX over the next year.
As the spacewalk came to an end, Mission Control congratulated Noguchi for the longest gap between spaceflight: 15 1/2 years. Its three previous spacewalks occurred in 2005, during its first shuttle flight after the 2003 Columbia disaster.
This should be the final spacewalk for the station’s current occupants, whose half-year missions are coming to an end.
Rubins will return to Earth in mid-April in a Russian capsule, accompanied by two Russians. Noguchi, Glover and two other NASA astronauts will be flying SpaceX back in late April or May.
(Disclaimer: This story has not been edited by www.republicworld.com and is automatically removed from syndicated feed.)