NASA astronauts conduct spacewalk to upgrade space station

By- Srushti Sharma

On Monday, October 30, two NASA astronauts will do a spacewalk from the International Space Station to finish off maintenance tasks at the orbital complex.

NASA Television, the NASA app, and the organization's website will all start airing live coverage of the spacewalk at 6:30 a.m. EDT.

The spacewalk is expected to last roughly six and a half hours, starting at 8:05 a.m.

NASA astronauts Loral O'Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli will leave the Quest airlock of the space station in order to remove the Radio Frequency Group electronics box from a communications antenna.

Additionally, they will swap out one of a solar alpha rotary joint's twelve trundle bearing assemblies.

The station's solar panels can rotate correctly to track the Sun as it round the Earth thanks to the bearings.

 The rotary joint is on the port, or left side, of the truss when facing the space station, while the antenna is on the starboard, or right, side.

Managers at the station are still organising a second spacewalk to gather samples for examination in order to determine whether or not there are any potential microbes beyond the orbiting complex.

The current U.S. spacewalk, 90, has been rescheduled until no earlier than December.