Spacewalk to replace high-speed antenna outside International Space Station expected to last 6.5 hours
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman works outside the space station’s Quest airlock aboard the International Space Station. Photo: REUTERS/NASA Handout/file
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Anil Menon and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot will conduct a spacewalk Tuesday outside the International Space Station to replace a key communications antenna that connects the orbiting laboratory to mission controllers on Earth.
The spacewalk, dubbed US Spacewalk 97, is scheduled to begin around 8:35 a.m. EDT (1235 GMT), according to NASA.
Menon and Adenot are expected to spend about six and a half hours outside the station, working from the Quest airlock and along the station’s Z1 structure.
Your main task will be to remove a faulty space-to-ground antenna and install a replacement. The antenna provides a high-speed communications link between the station and NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston, enabling the transmission of data and voice communications between Earth and the orbiting laboratory.
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The operation is part of routine but essential maintenance of the International Space Station, which has been continuously inhabited for more than 25 years.
Menon will make his second spacewalk in less than two weeks.
He and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir spent 6 hours and 27 minutes outside the station on August 6, preparing part of its power system for the future installation of another deployable solar array.
For Adenot, Tuesday’s operation will mark his first spacewalk. She will also become the first French woman to perform a spacewalk and the second European to do so, after Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022.
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