WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Two American astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station on Thursday, conducting a spacewalk to complete station upgrades.
The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8 A.M. ET, and last about six and a half hours, according to NASA. It will provide live coverage beginning at 6:30 A.M. on NASA+.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Sunita Williams will replace a rate gyro assembly that helps provide orientation control for the station, install patches to cover damaged areas of light filters for an X-ray telescope called NICER, and replace a reflector device used for navigational data on one of the international docking adapters. Additionally, the pair will check access areas and connector tools that will be used for future maintenance work on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
Hague will serve as spacewalk crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Williams will serve as spacewalk crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. This will be the fourth for Hague and the eighth for Williams. It will be the 273rd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
A second spacewalk is scheduled to take place on January 23. In the mission, lasting about six and a half hours, Butch Wilmore will join Sunita Williams.
The astronauts will remove a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station's truss, collect samples of surface material for analysis from the Destiny laboratory and the Quest airlock to see whether microorganisms may exist on the exterior of the orbital complex, and prepare a spare elbow joint for the Canadarm2 robotic arm in the event it is needed for a replacement.
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