Two spacewalks are planned for this calendar month to serve science experiment attached to the outside of the International Space Station ( ISS)—the first prison term NASA astronauts are set to mistreat outside the orbital laboratory since a series of piss leak incident halted the extravehicular activities .
NASA suspended spacewalks after aterrifying spacesuit leakage forced the distance federal agency to stanch all extravehicular activity . In June 2024 , two NASA astronauts were fix to pass away the ISS for a spacewalk when it wasabruptly call off due to a body of water leakin the service and cooling umbilical unit on astronaut Tracy Dyson ’s spacesuit . “ There ’s water everywhere , ” Dyson could be heard saying during the live feed from the ISS .
A few month later , NASA announced that it had settle the issueby put back a seal and umbilical cord connecting the spacesuit to the ISS and re - pressurizing the blabbermouthed spacesuit .
NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg rides the Canadarm2 robotic arm during a spacewalk 257 miles above the Pacific Ocean.NASA
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Nick Hague will be the first two astronauts to exit the ISS on January 16 at 7 a.m. ET to replace a rate gyroscope assembly , and service the NICER X - beam scope , an Adam - ray observatory that read neutron adept , ignominious holes , and other phenomenon while bind to the outside of the ISS . The pair will also prepare the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer , a particle physics experiment module jump on on the ISS , for future upgrades .
Another twosome of astronauts , Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore , will carry out the second spacewalk on January 23 . Williams and Wilmore found to the ISS on board Boeing ’s troubled Starliner ballistic capsule in June 2024 , and have beenstuck wait in low Earth compass for a ride home . The cosmonaut are scheduled toreturn back to Earth in Marchon board a SpaceX Dragon space vehicle .
NASA ’s spacesuits are in desperate want of an upgrade . The courtship donned by cosmonaut outside the ISS are more than 40 years old and approach the end of their lifeline . NASA ’s extravehicular mobility unit ( EMUs ) were first plan in the 1970s for the space birdie programme . The spacesuit have not had the best track record in the past few old age . In May 2022,NASA suspend spacewalks outside the ISSfollowing a series of potentially animation - threatening incidents of water leak into astronauts ’ helmets during their spacewalks . Earlier in 2013 , ESA spaceman Luca Parmitanonoticed a H2O leak inside his helmet that forced him to abruptly end the spacewalk .
NASA turned to its commercial partners to formulate new spacesuit , handing contract to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace in June 2022worth a combined value of $ 3.5 billion . Hopefully the spacesuits keep it together for the upcoming spacewalks while NASA preps its new tune of courting .
external space stationNASAspacewalk
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , render to your present .
You May Also Like
