Dec. 22 (UPI) — NASA astronauts will try again on Thursday morning to attach a solar array on the International Space Station after a piece of space junk was determined to be flying dangerously close to the orbiting laboratory to risk the project on Wednesday.
Space agency officials postponed Wednesday’s walk until they could nudge the ISS safely away from the space debris, allowing the astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio to safely perform their duties.
The astronauts are expected to leave the ISS into outdoor space at about 8:30 a.m. EST.
NASA identified the space debris as from an old Russian Fregat upper-stage booster. The space station and the astronauts were moved safely away from the potential close call.
Cassada and Rubio will install an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, or iROSA, to augment power generation for the 4A power channel on the station’s port truss structure. The iROSAs will increase power generation capability by up to 30%.
The spacewalk was expected to last about seven hours. If more work needs to be done, the installation can be completed in a second spacewalk at a later date.
A Russian spacewalk at the ISS was canceled last week as they evaluated a coolant leak that was detected coming from the aft end of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked at the International Space Station, NASA said then.
