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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Employees stress wash the brand of NASA on the Automobile Meeting Constructing earlier than SpaceX will ship two NASA astronauts to the Worldwide House Station aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, on the Kennedy House Heart in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., Ma
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By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) – A spacewalk deliberate for Tuesday to restore a defective antenna on the Worldwide House Station was postponed indefinitely, NASA mentioned, citing a “particles notification” it acquired for the orbiting analysis laboratory.
Two U.S. astronauts had been scheduled to enterprise exterior the area station at 7:10 a.m. Japanese time (1210 GMT) to start their work, going through what NASA officers had known as a barely elevated danger posed by particles from a Russian anti-satellite missile take a look at this month.
However about 5 hours earlier than the outing was to have commenced, NASA mentioned on Twitter (NYSE:) that the spacewalk had been known as off in the meanwhile.
“NASA acquired a particles notification for the area station. Because of the lack of alternative to correctly assess the danger it might pose to the astronauts, groups have determined to delay the Nov. 30 spacewalk till extra data is offered,” the area company tweeted.
It was not made clear how shut particles had come to the area station, orbiting about 250 miles (402 km) above the Earth, or whether or not it was associated to the Russian missile take a look at.
NASA TV had deliberate to supply stay protection of the 6-1/2-hour “extravehicular exercise,” or EVA, operation by astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron. The outing could be the fifth spacewalk for Marshburn, 61, a medical physician and former flight surgeon with two earlier journeys to orbit, and the primary for Barron, 34, a U.S. Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer on her debut spaceflight for NASA.
The target is to take away a defective S-band radio communications antenna meeting, now greater than 20 years outdated, and substitute it with a brand new spare stowed exterior the area station.
In line with plans, Marshburn was to have labored with Barron whereas positioned on the finish of a robotic arm operated from contained in the station by German astronaut Matthias Maurer of the European House Company, with assist from NASA crewmate Raja Chari.
The 4 arrived on the area station Nov. 11 in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launched from the Kennedy House Heart in Cape Canaveral, Florida, becoming a member of two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut already aboard the orbiting outpost.
4 days later, an anti-satellite missile take a look at performed with out warning by Russia generated a particles discipline in low-Earth orbit, and all seven crew members took shelter of their docked spaceships to permit for a fast getaway till the speedy hazard handed, in line with NASA.
The residual particles cloud from the blasted satellite tv for pc has dispersed since then, in line with Dana Weigel, NASA deputy supervisor of the Worldwide House Station (ISS) program.
However NASA calculates that remaining fragments continued to pose a “barely elevated” background danger to the area station as an entire, and a 7% increased danger of spacewalkers’ fits being punctured, as in comparison with earlier than Russia’s missile take a look at, Weigel advised reporters on Monday.
Though NASA has but to totally quantify extra hazards posed by greater than 1,700 bigger fragments it’s monitoring across the station’s orbit, the 7% increased danger to spacewalkers falls “properly inside” fluctuations beforehand seen in “the pure surroundings,” Weigel mentioned.
Nonetheless, mission managers canceled a number of smaller upkeep duties into account for Tuesday’s spacewalk, Weigel added.
(This story corrects final title of astronaut in sixth paragraph to Barron)
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