Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi contained in the Kibo laboratory module throughout his first week aboard the Worldwide Area Station.Picture: NASA
Two astronauts are gearing up for a virtually seven-hour-long spacewalk exterior the Worldwide Area Station on Friday, with one in every of them set to make historical past as the primary Arab astronaut to tackle the extravehicular exercise.
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NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen and United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi are scheduled to start their spacewalk on April 28 at 9:15 a.m. ET to improve the house station’s energy era system, based on NASA. The spacewalk might be broadcast dwell on NASA TV, in addition to the house company’s web site. You may as well tune into the motion by means of the feed beneath. The dwell feed will start at 7:45 a.m. ET.
Spacewalk with NASA Astronaut Steve Bowen and UAE Astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi (April 28)
The astronauts will spend round six and a half hours to proceed set up of {hardware} to help future energy system upgrades to the ISS. The house station is being prepped for its subsequent set of roll-out photo voltaic arrays, that are going to be launched on board the following SpaceX Dragon cargo mission in June.
“We’re making an attempt to get all of the cables prepared and making an attempt to pat down some insulation that’s not precisely in the fitting configuration the best way we wish it,” Dina Contella, ISS program operations integration supervisor, mentioned throughout a press name on Monday. “Simply usually getting ready issues like gear and staging gear within the good location in order that the June spacewalks can go off as deliberate.”
Throughout their spacewalk, the pair of astronauts may also retrieve the Radio Frequency Group (RFG) unit, a communications antenna, that might be returned to Earth.
This might be Bowen’s eighth spacewalk, whereas UAE astronaut Al Neyadi will enterprise exterior the ISS for the primary time to mark a major second in historical past for the Emirati house trade. Al Neyadi will change into the primary Arab astronaut to carry out a spacewalk and his extravehicular exercise will make UAE the tenth nation with a spacewalking astronaut.
Al Neyadi launched to the ISS on March 2 as a part of SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission. He was chosen by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Area Centre (MBRSC) to embark on this orbital journey as a part of an settlement between NASA and Axiom Area. The UAE astronaut has already made historical past because the fourth Arab in house and the primary Arab to go on a protracted length mission.
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