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NASA has canceled plans for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station this week due to a medical issue with one of the astronauts scheduled to join the excursion, people said. agency officials Monday 23 August.
A “minor medical issue” involving NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is the reason for the postponement of the spacewalk, the US space agency wrote in an update. Vande Hei and his teammate Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) were to venture outside the station on Tuesday, August 24 to prepare the orbiting lab for a new solar panel.
“This problem is not a medical emergency,” NASA officials wrote in the update. “The spacewalk is not urgent and the crew members continue to move forward with other work and activities at the station.”
Video: New solar panels deployed on the space station
Related: The International Space Station: Inside and Out (infographic)
NASA teams are now working to determine when to reschedule the spacewalk in the middle of a busy period for the space station. A SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft is currently set to launch the CRS-23 resupply mission to the station for NASA on Saturday (August 28). Russia, meanwhile, plans to send cosmonauts on a series of spacewalks starting next week to complete installation work on the station’s newest Russian module, called the Nauka, which has docked. at the station earlier this month.
During the planned spacewalk, Vandei Hei and Hoshide were to install a modification kit on the port side of the space station’s main spine-shaped beam. The kit will allow the installation of a new type of solar wing, called the International Space Station deployment solar array, to strengthen the station’s power grid. The new grid will be the third of six new solar wings intended to modernize the station’s electrical system.
That solar panel preparation work, along with other tasks, will now have to wait until a new spacewalk time is determined, NASA officials said.
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