Two NASA astronauts will conduct a long-delayed spacewalk immediately (March 18), and you’ll watch the motion dwell.
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Today’s spacewalk was initially scheduled for Jan. 8, with NASA’s Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman purported to go well with up. But that plan was nixed when a then-unnamed member of SpaceX‘s Crew-11 astronaut mission to the ISS skilled a medical concern.
That concern led to Crew-11’s departure on Jan. 15, about a month earlier than originally planned. It was the first medical evacuation in the long history of the ISS.
Fincke later revealed he was the one who experienced the problem on orbit. Neither Fincke nor NASA has revealed details about the concern, but both have stressed that the astronaut is doing fine.
Today’s spacewalk will be the fourth for Meir and the first for Williams. The duo will help prepare one of the station’s power channels for the future installation of an iROSA (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array).
Another spacewalk with similar goals will follow in the near future; NASA officials have said they will announce the astronauts involved and the target date after completion of today’s EVA (extravehicular activity). This other spacewalk was also a casualty of the Crew-11 medical evacuation; it was originally supposed to take place on Jan. 15.
The two upcoming spacewalks will be first ISS EVAs of 2026, the first for the orbiting lab’s current Expedition 74 and the 278th and 279th overall in the outpost’s lifetime.