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NASA TV is Live as Astronauts Get Ready for Spacewalk

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NASA TV is Live as Astronauts Get Ready for Spacewalk

NASA astronauts (from left) Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will conduct their third spacewalk together on Saturday morning.
NASA astronauts (from left) Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will conduct their third spacewalk together on Saturday morning.

NASA Television coverage of today’s spacewalk NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins is now underway and is also available on the NASA app and the agency’s website.

The crew members of Expedition 64 are preparing to venture outside the International Space Station for a spacewalk expected to begin around 7:30 a.m. EST and last about six and a half hours.

The crew is in the airlock and have donned their suits in preparation to exit the airlock and begin today’s activities to service the station’s cooling system and communications gear.

Glover and Hopkins will begin work on the station’s port truss, where they will vent the early ammonia system jumper lines and relocate one of them to the outside of the airlock, followed by translating to the Columbus module to connect cables for the Bartolomeo payload platform and replace a cable for an amateur radio system. Then, the astronauts will replace a wireless antenna assembly on the Unity module, install a “stiffener” on the airlock’s thermal cover, and route cables to provide ethernet capabilities for two high-definition cameras on the station’s port truss.

Leading the Mission Control team today is Flight Director Chris Edelen with support from Art Thomason as the lead spacewalk officer.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

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NASA TV Broadcasts Saturday Morning Spacewalk

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NASA TV Broadcasts Saturday Morning Spacewalk

NASA astronauts (from left) Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will conduct their third spacewalk together on Saturday morning.
NASA astronauts (from left) Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will conduct their third spacewalk together on Saturday morning.

NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins are scheduled to exit the International Space Station’s Quest airlock Saturday to complete tasks that were deferred from earlier spacewalks to allow for the successful installation of modification kits in preparation for future solar array upgrades.

The pair will set their spacesuits to battery power about 7:30 a.m. EST tomorrow, signifying the start of their spacewalk, which is expected to last about six and a half hours. NASA will begin its live coverage on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website at 6 a.m.

During the spacewalk, Glover and Hopkins will vent early ammonia system jumper cables and relocate one outside the Quest airlock. The duo also will connect cables for the Columbus Bartolomeo payload platform, continuing work from a Jan. 27 spacewalk, and replace a cable for an amateur radio system. Additionally, the astronauts will replace a wireless antenna assembly on the Unity module, install a “stiffener” on the airlock’s thermal cover to provide additional structural integrity, and route cables to enable ethernet capabilities for two high-definition cameras on the station’s port truss, or “backbone.”

This will be the 237th spacewalk in support of space station assembly. Glover will be designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1) and wear a spacesuit bearing red stripes. Hopkins will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2), wearing an unmarked suit.

Glover and Hopkins both arrived at the space station in November as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission. This will be the fourth career spacewalk for Glover, and the fifth for Hopkins.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

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NASA Awards Rapid IV On-Ramp 1 Contract for Spacecraft Systems, Services

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NASA Awards Rapid IV On-Ramp 1 Contract for Spacecraft Systems, Services

NASA has awarded contracts to Thales Alenia Space France of Cannes, France, and Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. of Rome, Italy, under the On-Ramp feature of the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid IV) contract.

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Sound Checks, Eye Scans as Crew Preps for Saturday Spacewalk

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Sound Checks, Eye Scans as Crew Preps for Saturday Spacewalk

NASA spacewalkers (front left) Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins are pictured with (rear left) astronauts Kate Rubins and Soichi Noguchi before the start of spacewalk on Jan. 27, 2021.
NASA spacewalkers (front left) Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins are pictured with (rear left) astronauts Kate Rubins and Soichi Noguchi before the start of a spacewalk on Jan. 27, 2021.

The Expedition 64 crew is wrapping up final preparations before two astronauts exit the International Space Station for a maintenance spacewalk on Saturday morning. The orbital residents also measured lab sound levels and checked their crewmates’ eyes to end the workweek.

NASA spacewalkers Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will take part in their third spacewalk together on Saturday when they set their U.S. spacesuits to battery power at 7:30 a.m. EST. The duo is scheduled to spend about six-and-a-half hours servicing the station’s cooling system and communications gear. NASA TV begins its live coverage of the spacewalk activities at 6 a.m.

Astronauts Kate Rubins and Soichi Noguchi will assist the spacewalkers in and out of their suits on Saturday while monitoring the spacewalk. Glover and Hopkins readied their spacesuits and tools in the U.S. Quest airlock on Friday. The quartet also met for a final procedures review and a conference with spacewalk specialists in Mission Control.

Toward the end of the day, Rubins set up acoustic monitors and recorded sound levels emanating from the Life Science Glovebox operating inside the Japanese Kibo laboratory module. NASA astronaut Shannon Walker was the crew medical officer on Friday and scanned the eyes of cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov using an ultrasound device and optical coherence tomography.

The orbital lab will boost its orbit today at 2:09 p.m. placing it at the correct altitude for a crew swap taking place next month. The next crew to visit the station will launch aboard the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship on April 9 carrying NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov. The trio will join the Expedition 64/65 crew for a six-month research mission in Earth orbit.

Finally, the Expedition 64 trio with Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov, will finish their mission on April 17 when their Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft undocks. They will parachute in their crew ship to a landing in Kazakhstan completing a six-month stay on the station.

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Mark Garcia

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