NASA will air a gazillion ISS spacewalks over the next few months – CNET

annemcclainiss

Anne McClain during a spacewalk on the ISS on March 22.


NASA

NASA has a smorgasbord of spacewalks on tap for the next three months. The space agency announced the upcoming International Space Station action on Monday. 

NASA’s live TV feed is expected to broadcast “what may become a record pace of 10 complex spacewalks” starting on Sunday, Oct. 6. This rate of spacewalks has not been seen since the ISS was completed in 2011, NASA said.

The spacewalks will focus on necessary station maintenance tasks. The first half of the slate will involve replacing solar array batteries as part of an ongoing upgrade process. We watched a previous battery-replacement spacewalk in March. This project has been underway since early 2017.

The next five spacewalks are expected to begin in November and will tackle the refurbishment of the station’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics detector attached to the exterior of the ISS. This instrument is on a mission to help scientists investigate some heavy-duty subjects, including dark matter and antimatter. NASA describes it as looking for “what the universe is made of and how it began.”

If you plan to (slowly) binge-watch all of the spacewalks, you’ll need to tune in starting on Sunday around 4:50 a.m. PT for the first battery-replacement stroll in space. NASA Television coverage will start at 3:30 a.m.

NASA will announce scheduling details for the other spacewalks as they get closer, but you can go ahead and get pumped for all the upcoming spacesuit action.

source: cnet.com