Not one but two spacewalks are in your forecast! Three astronauts will be venturing outside the International Space Station this month of January: two NASA (American) and one JAXA (Japanese). The first effort will be to replace some parts of Canadarm2, shown below, on Tuesday January 23rd. The second will be to replace Canadarm2’s Mobile Base Bench rail car on Monday January 29th.
STS-100 EVA VIEW, ASTRONAUT PARAZYNSKI, SCOTT-E. TOTES A DIRECT CURRENT SWITCHING UNIT WHILE ANCHORED ON THE END OF CANADIAN BUILT ROBOTIC ARM. REF: 396-019
Coverage for both walks will begin at 5:30 am EST (9:30 UTC) with expected start times of the walks at 7:10 am EST (11:10 UTC). Each walk is expected to take 6.5 hours. YEP YOU READ THAT RIGHT SIX AND A HALF HOURS. This is actually pretty typical of a spacewalk and that is why they are notoriously exhausting. You may be thinking… how are you able to go to the bathroom… what if you get hungry? Well… You have a diaper on in your suit called the maximum absorbency garment. Also, they do actually have a bar of food but I hear it is not too tasty so a lot of astronauts just wait until they are back on station for some nutrition.
To watch simply tune in here during the walk or earlier for the preshow.
To get you familiar with the astronauts Here is a video of the astronauts Kanai on the left for JAXA and Hei and Tingle on the right for NASA.
Happy Exploring!!
