Two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station will make a pair of spacewalks on Friday, June 9 and Thursday, June 15 to install two new solar arrays.
NASA will discuss upcoming spacewalks during a press conference at 12 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 1. Live coverage of the press conference and spacewalks will be broadcast on NASA TV, the NASA app and the agency’s website.
US media interested in attending in person should contact the Johnson office by 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, May 31, at 281-483-5111 or by email at jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. To ask questions, reporters must call the press conference by 11:45 a.m. on June 1. Questions can also be sent on social media using #AskNASA.
Each spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m. and last about six and a half hours, with NASA coverage beginning at 7:45 a.m.
On June 9, NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg will exit the Quest station’s airlock to install the improved International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (IROSA) on the 1A power channel on the station’s starboard side.
Bowen will serve as a crew member for extravehicular activity (EVA) 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Hoburg will serve as extravehicular crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. American EVA 87 will be Bowen’s ninth spacewalk and Hoburg’s first.
On June 15, the same pair of astronauts will install IROSA on feed channel 1B on the starboard beam. Tasks for the U.S. EVA 88 will be determined later.
During the spacewalks, the fifth and sixth IROSA will be mounted on the station’s existing solar array. The new fields are 60 feet long and 20 feet wide (18.2 meters by 6 meters) and will eclipse slightly more than half of the original fields, which are 112 feet long and 39 feet wide.
The seventh and eighth IROSA will be installed on future spacewalks. Each new IROSA will generate more than 20 kilowatts of electricity, and once all eight are installed, will allow for a 30% increase in power generation over the station’s current arrays.
Get the latest news, pictures and features from the space station on the station’s blog, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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