NASA astronauts to conduct all-female spacewalk today: How to watch
NASA astronauts Loral O'Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli will perform an all-female spacewalk today. It will be the fourth such all-female spacewalk ever. The spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) will commence at 8:05am EDT (5:35pm IST) and will last for about seven hours. All of the previous all-woman spacewalks have been carried out by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, in 2019 and 2020.
The purpose of the spacewalk
During their spacewalk today, O'Hara and Moghbeli will remove a radio communication gear. To be more specific, they will remove an electronics box called Radio Frequency Group, a component of a communications antenna system. Also, the astronauts will replace the hardware that enables the ISS's solar arrays to track the Sun. The spacewalk was originally planned for October 20 but was delayed due to an ammonia coolant leak detected on a backup radiator of Russia's Nauka module on October 9.
Cosmonauts recently performed a spacewalk to examine the coolant leak
On October 25, two cosmonauts carried out a spacewalk to examine the source of the coolant leak and complete other tasks. Their findings will assist Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency, in identifying the cause of the leak and repairing the radiator's functionality. NASA and Roscosmos officials have confirmed that the astronauts aboard the ISS are not in danger, as Nauka's primary radiator continues to operate correctly.
How to watch today's spacewalk?
You can watch the all-female astronaut spacewalk via NASA's official YouTube channel, with coverage starting at 6:30am EDT (4:00pm IST). Astronauts O'Hara and Moghbeli are scheduled to step outside the ISS at 8:05am EDT (5:35pm IST).
