2023-10-12 13:00:00
Written by Samah Labib Thursday, October 12, 2023 04:00 PM NASA canceled a spacewalk scheduled for Thursday following discovering a leak in the space station earlier this week. NASA officials also canceled a planned spacewalk on the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday as a precaution following an ammonia coolant leak was discovered on Monday, October 9, in the reserve cooler of Russia’s Naoka science module. NASA officials said another spacewalk had also been postponed. on October 20, and new dates will be announced soon, Space reports. “NASA’s engineering and flight control teams continue to review data and video” resulting from the leak, officials said in an update, saying NASA will wait until the review is complete before authorizing the planned spacewalk. They added: “The leak has now stopped, as reported by flight controllers at Roscosmos, as evidenced by the NASA station’s external camera views, which show only the remaining coolant droplets.” Spacewalks conducted with floating ammonia flakes often need extra steps to avoid contamination of the equipment or astronauts, and the cause of the leak is still under investigation. Separately, Russian space agency Roscosmos announced Tuesday via the Telegram app that it plans to assign two astronauts to check the coolant during a previously planned spacewalk on October 25. Roscosmos and NASA officials have repeatedly said that the leak — the third in Russia’s ISS equipment in the past year — had no material impact on space station operations. But the delay in the American spacewalk will lead to the postponement of some simple maintenance work for the station, in addition to testing that was supposed to support future lunar exploration. The EVA scheduled for Thursday was supposed to see NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, each on their first spacewalk, “emerge from the station’s Quest airlock to collect samples for analysis to see if the objects… Microorganisms may exist on the outside of the “orbiter complex,” NASA officials wrote regarding the planned activities on October 3. The second activity, replacing a high-resolution camera on the station’s port supports, was supposed to preview what might be possible with A planned orbital station around the Moon is called “Gateway.” Mogensen is tasked with riding aboard the robotic Canadarm 2 to reach the camera with ground controllers guiding the arm instead of the usual astronaut inside the International Space Station.
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