NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson (left) and Matthew Dominick throughout spacewalk coaching in Houston, Texas. NASA
NASA’s first spacewalk of 2024 was known as off about an hour earlier than it was anticipated to start on the Worldwide Area Station on Thursday morning.
The area company mentioned the spacewalk involving NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matthew Dominick was postponed “attributable to a spacesuit discomfort subject.”
It didn’t say if the issue affected one or each astronauts, however clearly it couldn’t be resolved in time for the spacewalk to start as NASA ended up scrapping the occasion.
The stroll would have been Dyson’s fourth and Dominick’s first and would have lasted round six-and-a-half hours. The spacesuits that astronauts put on exterior the station throughout spacewalks are giant and ponderous, and an improper match would’ve been onerous to deal with for such an extended time frame. Nonetheless, it’s uncommon for a spacewalk to be known as off for that reason.
“The crew members on the station are wholesome, and spacesuits are functioning as anticipated,” NASA mentioned in a message on its web site after the spacewalk had been postponed.
The subsequent spacewalk on the orbital outpost is at present scheduled for Monday, June 24, adopted by one other on Tuesday, July 2. Astronauts for these walks have but to be named.
Dyson and Dominick, who arrived on the station on separate spacecraft three months in the past, would’ve spent a few of their time throughout Thursday’s spacewalk swabbing exterior surfaces as a part of analysis to search out out if microorganisms launched by way of the station’s vents can survive the hostile circumstances of area.
The findings may assist scientists study extra about the opportunity of life present in different off-Earth places, and assist to verify whether or not any life that’s found someplace like Mars is basically from there or was truly introduced on a mission from Earth.
The duty record for Monday’s spacewalk additionally contains accumulating microorganism samples, so the analysis will nonetheless be undertaken, albeit a little bit later than anticipated.
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