Advertisement
Two US astronauts were set to replace a bad antenna outside of the space station. But late Monday night, Mission Control learned that a piece of orbiting debris might come dangerously close.
There wasn’t enough time to assess the threat so station managers delayed the spacewalk for at least a few days.
It’s the first time a spacewalk has been canceled because of a threat from space junk.
Related Articles
Advertisement
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the object of concern was part of the Russian satellite wreckage. During a news conference Monday, NASA officials said the November 15 missile test resulted in at least 1,700 satellite pieces big enough to track, and thousands more too small to be observed from the ground but still able to pierce a spacewalker’s suit.
NASA officials said astronauts Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron faced a 7 percent greater risk of a spacewalk puncture because of the Russian-generated debris. But they said it was still within acceptable limits based on previous experience.
Marshburn and Barron arrived at the space station earlier this month.