Previously, this spacewalk was supposed to take place on December 19, that is, on Monday of this week, but then an incident occurred on the International Space Station. A coolant leak has been detected on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft attached to the ISS and the spacewalk has been postponed. Finally, Wednesday, December 21, was set for the spacewalk, but at the last minute that too had to be postponed. Now the goal has been set to do this spacewalk today.
This spacewalk will be done to install the new solar array on the space station. both astronauts
It will install a new ISS deployable solar array (iROSA). iROSA is intended to augment the station’s existing solar panel system. 6 solar panels of this type will be installed. This is the solar matrix of the fourth number. Once the complete configuration is ready, the power supply of the orbiting laboratory on the ISS will increase by 20 to 30 percent.
It’s worth noting that this hurdle in NASA’s spacewalk has been imposed both times for Russian reasons. The debris that came close to the orbital outpost is said to be a piece of a Russian rocket. The debris was estimated to come within 0.4 km of the station. The debris had been tracked for several days, but suddenly got close enough to red alert, forcing the proposed spacewalk to be postponed.
After the spacewalk is called off, the ground control team prepares to operate the space station so that it can be moved away from any danger. According to new information, the space station is no longer endangered by that debris. However, the spacewalk is now scheduled for today. According to Indian time, it can be viewed on the official NASA website or YouTube channel starting at 7 pm today.