The US space agency, NASA, announced the postponement of the trip that was scheduled to be carried out by two astronauts on Tuesday to repair the antenna of the International Space Station (ISS), due to the presence of floating debris in the area.
“Faced with the impossibility of properly assessing the risks this could pose to astronauts, the teams decided to postpone the flight scheduled for November 30 until they had more information,” NASA stressed.
So far, no new date has been set for astronauts to leave the International Space Station with the goal of replacing an antenna outside a special laboratory that recently lost its ability to send signals to Earth via the space agency’s satellite tracking and data relay system.
The antenna malfunction in port 1 did not leave the ISS without communication, which contains additional low-speed S-band systems, as well as a high-speed KU-band communication system that transmits video, but mission officials decided to replace it for a new one.
Astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron plan to spend six and a half hours outside the International Space Station to replace the antenna with the help of the Canadarm2 robotic arm, controlled internally by Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Marshburn, Barron and Maurer from the SpaceX Crew 3 mission arrived at the International Space Station on November 11 for a six-month science stay aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft.
Led by US astronaut Raja Chari, the Crew-3 mission, as its name suggests, is the third manned mission to reach the International Space Station with astronauts from NASA and other space agencies aboard the SpaceX spacecraft from the United States.
The four astronauts from the Crew-3 mission occupy the positions left by the four Crew 2 crew members on the International Space Station, who returned to Earth six months later.
