NASA’s
“We know it's super tight in there,” Mission Control radioed.
The astronauts headed with their unusually large load to the far port side of the station, careful not to bump into anything. That’s where the station’s oldest and most degraded solar wings are located.
Glover quickly began putting the struts together in the shape of a triangle, using a cordless power drill, and Rubins bolted the completed piece to the space station.
With more people and experiments flying on the space station, more power will be needed to keep everything running, according to
Rubins and Glover had to assemble and bolt down the struts for the first two solar panels, due to launch in June.
The eight solar panels up there now are 12 to 20 years old — most of them past their design lifetime and deteriorating. Each panel is 112 feet (34 metres) long by 39 feet (12 metres) wide. Tip to tip counting the centre framework, each pair stretches 240 feet (73 metres), longer than a Boeing 777's wingspan.
A prototype was tested at the space station in 2017.
The views from Rubins’ new high-definition helmet camera were stunning, particularly those showing the vivid blue Earth 270 miles (435 kilometres) below. “Pretty fantastic,” observed Mission Control.
Sunday’s spacewalk was the third for infectious disease specialist Rubins and
They’re among 18 astronauts newly assigned to NASA’s Artemis moon-landing program. The next moonwalkers will come from this group.
Last week, Vice-President
“The history making that you are doing, we are so proud of you,” Harris said. Like other firsts, Glover replied, it won't be the last. “We want to make sure that we can continue to do new things,” he said.
Rubins will float back out Friday with Japanese astronaut
Glover and Noguchi were among four astronauts arriving via
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