The Associated PressJan 28, 2021 11:46:15 AM IS
Spacewalking astronauts experienced cable problems on Wednesday while trying to upgrade the International Space Station’s European laboratory. Only one of the two laboratory upgrades was completely successful. NASA’s Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover installed a new antenna in Columbus, one of three high-tech laboratories at the orbiting outpost. Scientists in Europe took a few tries to properly turn it on. No longer needed, the box-shaped antenna cover was thrown overboard.
“Let’s go. Countdown: 3-2-1,” Glover sparkled as he lifted it safely away from the space station.
NASA astronaut Victor Glover puts on his spacesuit and gets ready to leave the ISS for a spacewalk. Photo credit: Twitter @Astro_Jessica
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Elsewhere in the lab, Glover couldn’t connect all of the power and data cables to a scientific research platform that’s been waiting to be activated for almost a year. He managed to connect four out of six cables. You checked out well with the current flowing and enabled partial use of the platform.
However, the connections on two cables could not be completely closed and these had to be covered. The engineers will try to find a solution for a future spacewalk so that experiments can be carried out across the platform.
SpaceX delivered the Bartolomeo platform to the space station last spring. The shelf was installed using the station’s robotic arm but had to wait until Wednesday’s spacewalk to be hooked up.
Airbus, which Bartolomeo built and operated, wants to sell space on the platform for private research projects. It is Europe’s first commercial company outside the train station.
@ Astro_Illini and @AstroVicGlover completed today’s spacewalk at 1:24 p.m. ET after installing a new science antenna and preparing the station for future power system upgrades. More … https://t.co/31plsfOck2 pic.twitter.com/g1I3mlwJHE
– International Space Station (@Space_Station) January 27, 2021
The Danish astronaut Andreas Morgensen led the spacewalkers from Mission Control in Houston, where the air traffic controllers wore masks and were separated because of the pandemic. The spacewalk lasted seven hours.
Hopkins and Glover will do a second spacewalk on Monday to complete battery upgrades to the station’s solar power grid. The final spacewalk was the third for Hopkins and the first for Glover.
They are part of SpaceX’s second astronaut flight, which was launched in November. Her docked kite capsule was seen on NASA television during the spacewalk.
