Two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will venture out of the orbiting laboratory on Thursday, 5 October, for the first spacewalk of the month. They have planned three spacewalks in October to keep the ISS maintained.
In the mission called ‘Expedition 53’, astronauts Randy Bresnik and Mark Van Hei will remove and replace a defective Latching End-Effector on the Canadarm 2 robotic arm. Motorised latches of one of the Canadarm 2 grappling mechanisms experienced a stall last month.
The expedition is expected to last 6 hours and 30 minutes.
NASA has planned three spacewalks in the month of October, with the next two planned for 10 and 18 October. Bresnik will be going for all three spacewalks, and will be joined by astronaut Joe Acaba in the third walk instead of Van Hei.
The 10 October spacewalk is scheduled to replace a station video camera.
On the 18 October spacewalk, Bresnik and Acaba will lube selected areas on the station and replace another video camera at Destiny Laboratory with a new HD camera.
Fortunately, there has been no hindering in NASA’s missions due to these technical issues.
Watch NASA’s live coverage of the spacewalk here.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)