Two astronauts are gearing up for a virtually seven-hour-lengthy spacewalk exterior the Worldwide Area Station on Friday, with one among them set to make historical past as the primary Arab astronaut to tackle the extravehicular exercise.
NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen and United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi are scheduled to start their spacewalk on April 28 at 9:15 a.m. ET to improve the area station’s energy era system, in accordance with NASA. The spacewalk can be broadcast dwell on NASA TV, in addition to the area company’s website. You may also tune into the motion by means of the feed beneath. The dwell feed will start at 7:45 a.m. ET.
The astronauts will spend round six and a half hours to proceed set up of {hardware} to assist future energy system upgrades to the ISS. The area station is being prepped for its subsequent set of roll-out photo voltaic arrays, that are going to be launched on board the following SpaceX Dragon cargo mission in June.
“We’re making an attempt to get all of the cables prepared and making an attempt to pat down some insulation that’s not precisely in the precise configuration the way in which we would like it,” Dina Contella, ISS program operations integration supervisor, stated throughout a press name on Monday. “Simply typically getting ready issues like gear and staging gear within the excellent location in order that the June spacewalks can go off as deliberate.”
Throughout their spacewalk, the pair of astronauts may even retrieve the Radio Frequency Group (RFG) unit, a communications antenna, that can be returned to Earth.
This can be Bowen’s eighth spacewalk, whereas UAE astronaut Al Neyadi will enterprise exterior the ISS for the primary time to mark a big second in historical past for the Emirati area business. Al Neyadi will change into the primary Arab astronaut to carry out a spacewalk and his extravehicular exercise will make UAE the tenth country with a spacewalking astronaut.
Al Neyadi launched to the ISS on March 2 as a part of SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission. He was chosen by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Area Centre (MBRSC) to embark on this orbital journey as a part of an settlement between NASA and Axiom Area. The UAE astronaut has already made historical past because the fourth Arab in area and the primary Arab to go on a protracted period mission.
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