NASA spacewalk solar panel installation
Two NASA astronauts, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, went outside the International Space Station. This was a big and important step in the work being done to make the space station better and more modern.
The work started around 5:45 in the evening, India time. The astronauts are expected to be outside for about six and a half hours, working in the emptiness of space. Their job is to get the space station ready for new and better solar panels that will give it more power.
McClain has gone on spacewalks twice before, and she was wearing a spacesuit with red stripes. Ayers was going on her very first spacewalk, and her suit didn’t have any stripes.
Their main jobs were to move a special antenna that helps the space station talk to spaceships coming and going. They also needed to put a support piece on the main backbone of the station.
This support piece will hold new solar panels called IROSAs. These new panels are designed to make the space station’s power supply much stronger, increasing it by as much as 30 percent.
These new IROSA solar panels are a big step forward in how we use sunlight to make power in space. They are better and more adaptable than the older, stiff solar panels.
Once these new solar panels are put in place during another spacewalk later on, they will help make sure the International Space Station stays a top place for doing science. It will have more power for experiments and equipment that need a lot of energy.
This mission is important not just because of the technical work they’re doing, but also because it shows how women are playing a bigger and more leading role in exploring space. You can even watch the spacewalk live online, so people everywhere can see how carefully and as a team the astronauts are working right now.