SpaceQ Space news and analysis.
This Thursday the first of three spacewalks will take place to replace one of the hands, know as Latching End Effectors (LEE) on the station’s Canadarm2.
In late August one of the Canadarm2’s hands “experienced a stall of its motorized latches” according to NASA. While it didn’t affect planned space station operations, one of the Latching End Effectors needs to be replaced.
According to NASA during Thursday first spacewalk, Randy Bresnik and Mark Vande Hei will replace the Latching End Effectors. Then on October 10th and 18th “the second and third spacewalks will be devoted to lubricating the newly replaced Canadarm2 end effector and replacing cameras on the left side of the station’s truss and the right side of the station’s U.S. Destiny laboratory.”
Yesterday NASA held a briefing on the spacewalks. The participants were:
- Kenneth Todd, International Space Station Operations Integration Manager
- Judd Frieling, NASA Spacewalk Flight Director
- Tim Braithwaite, International Space Station Program Liaison for the Canadian Space Agency
- Jacklyn Kagey, U.S. Spacewalk 44 EVA officer
- Glenda Brown, U.S. Spacewalk 45 and 46 EVA officer
Live on SpaceQ
All three spacewalks will be covered live by NASA and you watch them on SpaceQ.
The first spacewalk will start at approximately 8:05 a.m. this Thursday with TV coverage starting at 6:30 a.m. EDT.
