This picture, taken during a July 2011 spacewalk, shows the International Space Station with space shuttle Atlantis (docked at the edge of the frame on the far right) and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft (docked below the sun). In the foreground is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) experiment, which will be repaired by astronauts in upcoming spacewalks, the first of which is November 15, 2019. Image via NASA/Ron Garan.
On Friday, November 15, 2019, two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station for the first of a series of complex spacewalks to repair a cosmic ray detector.
NASA TV begins its live spacewalk coverage Friday at 10:30 UTC (5:30 a.m. EST). Translate UTC to your time. The astronauts, Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA Flight Engineer Drew Morgan will set their spacesuits to battery power at 12:05 UTC (7:05 a.m EST), signifying the start of their spacewalk.
Friday’s spacewalk will be the first of at least four spacewalks currently planned before the end of this year (the others are as yet unscheduled) to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a cosmic ray detector.
Over the course of the spacewalks, the astronauts will replace a cooling system and fix a coolant leak on AMS. Delivered to the station in May 2011, AMS captures cosmic particles and measures their electrical charge in its search for antimatter and dark matter. The upgraded cooling system will support AMS through the lifetime of the space station.
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Astronauts (from left) Luca Parmitano, Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan are pictured at the robotics workstation inside the cupola, the International Space Station’s “window to the world.” Image via NASA.
According to a NASA statement:
These spacewalks are considered the most complex of their kind since the Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions, which took place between 1993 and 2009. The AMS originally was designed for a three-year mission and, unlike Hubble, was not designed to be serviced once in space. More than 20 unique tools were designed for the intricate repair work, which will include the cutting and splicing of eight cooling tubes to be connected to the new system, and reconnection of a myriad of power and data cables. Astronauts have never cut and reconnected fluid lines during a spacewalk.
Parmitano and Morgan have spent dozens of hours training specifically for the AMS repair spacewalks. NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will support the duo on Friday. Meir will be in charge of the Canadarm2 robotic arm while Koch manages the U.S. spacesuits.
Bottom line: Watch ISS astronauts spacewalk live on November 15, 2019.
Source:
https://earthsky.org/space/watch-iss-spacewalk-nov-dec-2019