NASA spacewalk: Watch astronauts Kate Rubins, Victor Glover outdoors the area station
Both NASA crew members are veteran spacewalkers at this level. Glover has already performed two spacewalks since arriving on the area station in November. This will probably be his third.
Rubins beforehand performed spacewalks throughout her first rotation on the area station in 2016, so this will probably be her third as nicely.
If this Sunday’s spacewalk appears sooner than earlier spacewalks — particularly on condition that it is occurring on the weekend — nicely, it’s. But “it’s not really a Monday through Friday kind of program,” reminded Kenny Todd, deputy supervisor for the International Space Station program, throughout a press convention Wednesday.
Rubins and Glover will put together for upcoming photo voltaic array upgrades by assembling and putting in modification kits.
While the station’s present photo voltaic arrays are nonetheless functioning nicely, they’re degrading. This degradation is predicted as a result of they solely have a couple of 15-year life and have been put in in December 2000 — so that they’ve outlasted the guarantee, so to talk.
Brand-new photo voltaic arrays will probably be positioned in entrance of six of the arrays at present on the station later this yr, boosting the station’s energy from 160 kilowatts to 215 kilowatts, in accordance with NASA. The photo voltaic arrays will start launching to the area station on a SpaceX car in June.
During the spacewalk, Rubins will probably be crew member 1 within the go well with bearing crimson stripes, and Glover will probably be crew member 2 in a go well with with no stripes.
Rubins can even pair up with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi for a spacewalk on March 5 to finish various duties, together with venting ammonia from the Early Ammonia System, alternative of a wi-fi video transceiver meeting, and set up of a “stiffener” on the Quest airlock thermal cowl. This will forestall the duvet from blowing out when environment escapes every time the hatch is opened.
This would be the 235th spacewalk within the historical past of the station.
From Earth to area
“Victor, it is so good to see you, the history-making you are doing, we are so proud of you,” Harris mentioned.
Glover is the primary African American to fly a long-term mission on the area station within the historical past of the orbiting laboratory.
During their dialog, Harris and Glover mentioned those that got here earlier than Glover and impressed him.
“I think about that piece often,” Glover mentioned. “All seven of us up here are a part of an amazing legacy of human spaceflight. It is a time we should celebrate and that we should be appreciative of, but really what I am most excited about is the future of human spaceflight and the fact that this is going to be the future. This is what we’re going to do. We want to make sure we can continue to do new things.”
Harris agreed. “My mother would say to me, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things. Make sure you’re not the last.’ “
When Harris requested Glover about his first two spacewalks and his perspective of the Earth, Glover mentioned he took the recommendation of his fellow crew members to “keep your world small, keep your focus on the thing right in front of you and slowly widen out that world-view.”
The first time he noticed Earth throughout a spacewalk, he needed to experience it for hours, Glover mentioned. But he targeted on the various duties forward and the spacewalk was “busy and beautiful.”
Glover additionally talked about how fragile Earth appears to be like from area, particularly our skinny environment and “just how special it is for there to be human life on this planet.”
“It makes me want to do all that I can to protect that,” Glover mentioned.