A spacewalk aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has been called off due to a medical issue of one of the two astronauts who were set to exit the orbital outpost. The spacewalk was scheduled for Tuesday, August 24.
NASA announced the news explaining that NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who reached the space station in April 2021, faced a “minor medical issue,” adding that it wasn’t “a medical emergency.”
More spacewalks scheduled
With spacewalks requiring astronauts to work in heavy spacesuits in a harsh environment for several hours at once, astronauts taking part have to be healthy before exiting the confines of the ISS. The spacewalk, which Vande Hei will carry out with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, is now being rescheduled for August 28.
The spacewalk will be followed by two scheduled spacewalks that will involve Russian cosmonauts that might happen in early September. Vande Hei will not depart the space station until March 2022, so there’s a lot of time for him to perform another spacewalk.
The postponed spacewalk would have seen the astronauts upgrade the ISS’ power system with the installation of a support bracket for new rollout arrays. Two of the new arrays are already up and running, with another four arrays waiting to be installed.
Future of spacewalks
Besides, NASA recently celebrated 20 years since its first spacewalk. The historic spacewalk happened on July 21, 2001, and was one of the 240 spacewalks that occurred over the span of two decades. As for the future spacewalks, many are in pipeline including on the moon, where NASA sends astronauts to the lunar surface again. These spacewalks will be geared much more toward science and exploration rather than maintenance and upgrade word that is usually done aboard the ISS.
Moreover, Chinese astronauts have also completed their second spacewalk to install equipment outside the station. Called Taingong, the space station saw its first spacewalk just days after its launch. The astronauts went out of the space outpost to move equipment using the robotic arm and also installed a backup part of the air conditioning system.
