NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer are preparing for a hastily-scheduled spacewalk to repair a faulty part on the International Space Station (ISS).
The "contingency spacewalk," which will take place on Tuesday morning, is aimed at removing and replacing a part known as the Multiplexer-Demultiplexer (MDM), which failed on Saturday morning. The cause of the failure is not known, NASA said in a blog post on Sunday.
SEE ALSO:Astronauts take epic 200th spacewalk outside the International Space StationWhile this is not an emergency situation — no lives are at risk on the Space Station as a result of the outage — but having backup systems is critical to the operation of the orbiting laboratory. The MDM is used to keep solar arrays, radiators, and other systems functioning properly.
"The other MDM in the truss is functioning perfectly, providing uninterrupted telemetry routing to the station’s systems. The crew has never been in any danger, and the MDM failure, believed to be internal to the box itself, has had no impact on station activities," NASA said.
Whitson, who is the current ISS commander, will replace the failed MDM with a spare unit, while Fischer will install communications antennas on an another station component, which was a leftover to-do item after a May 12 spacewalk.
This will be Commander Whitson’s 10th spacewalk, according to NASA, and will likely move her up into third place for cumulative spacewalking time.
Fischer, by contrast, will be making his second spacewalk when he steps out into the void on Tuesday.
This particular part will be quite familiar to Whitson, since on March 30, she and astronaut Shane Kimbrough conducted a spacewalk to install it, complete with upgraded software, NASA said.
The space agency will air the spacewalk beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET on its website and NASA-TV.
(责任编辑：熱點)
'Spider
Chadwick Boseman's wife Taylor Simone Ledward gives moving Golden Globes speech
Celebrate Halloween 2020 online with all these great costume photos
Arnold Schwarzenegger's childhood tale ties Trump fervor to NazismGame of Thrones star Michiel Huisman cast in Netflix's Haunting of Hill House seriesWhy Sean Spicer is actually a genius
When it comes to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, most people would not immediately label hi
...[详细]Chadwick Boseman's wife Taylor Simone Ledward gives moving Golden Globes speech
On Sunday, the late actor Chadwick Boseman won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture,
...[详细]Germany's giant wooden penis has gone missing
It's been a week for unexplained phallic sculptures in the wild. First the Utah monolith was removed
...[详细]
Essentials Weekspotlights unexpected items that make our daily lives just a little bit better.During
...[详细]'Rick and Morty' update brings Mr. Poopybutthole to 'Rocket League'
Ah jeez, the。 Rick and Morty 。universe is colliding with 。 Rocket League
。for the game's second anniver
...[详细]Apple TV+ 'Servant' Season 2 review: More suspense, more impact
Are you familiar with the "bomb theory?"It's an idea coined by Alfred Hitchcock: Imagine there's a b
...[详细]Mastercard will support cryptocurrency payments this year
Financial services company Mastercard has given fresh credibility to cryptocurrencies this week by a
...[详细]This is probably the scariest iPhone hack ever
Most smartphone hacks these days, even the most dangerous ones, require some sort of user interactio
...[详细]We’re at the halfway point of 2017, so all this week Mashable entertainment will be rolling ou
...[详细]4 ways tech has helped my autistic son
When I heard the announcement of nursery and school closures brought on by the novel coronavirus las
...[详细]Lenovo just blew our minds with this bendable laptop concept
TikTok's first user to hit 100 million followers is Charli D'Amelio
