Spacewalks are always been one of the fascinating subjects, now after a while, the International Space Station (ISS) astronauts are gearing up for the next series of spacewalks – three in total – scheduled for this month, with the first one on October 5. The eye exams were conducted on Tuesday morning two days ahead of a spacewalk. The crew is also preparing for a pair of upcoming commercial cargo missions.
Sources say that the first spacewalk will be led by space station commander Randy Bresnik, accompanied by fellow NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei. The duo will venture outside the orbiting laboratory to replace one of the two end effectors on the Canadarm2 robotic arm, lubricate the new component and replace cameras at two locations on the station’s truss.
On a brief note, spacewalks are events that science and space enthusiasts look forward to with the initiation of every consecutive expedition launch. NASA is aware of that and the event is always telecast live on NASA TV at 6:30 am EDT.
Meanwhile, Mark Van Hei seems extremely excited at the upcoming event and tweeted an image of what they’ll be working on, saying: “Spacewalk coming up! @AstroKomrade and I, with a whole lotta support, will change the end effector on that (big) puppy for a better one.”
Check out his post here:
Spacewalk coming up! @AstroKomrade and I, with a whole lotta support, will change the end effector on that (big) puppy for for a better one. pic.twitter.com/u13y1RxA9j
— Mark T. Vande Hei (@Astro_Sabot) October 3, 2017
While, the next two spacewalks are scheduled for October 10 and 18, beginning at approximately 8:05 am, the events may begin earlier if the crew is running ahead of schedule, said the sources from NASA.
All the three spacewalks will be led by the Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik.
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