The spacewalk of NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada has been postponed due to the presence in orbit of debris from the Fregat-SB upper stage of a Russian rocket, which is forcing the International Space Station (ISS) to perform an avoidance maneuver.
There is currently no danger to the crew on board.
This was announced by the American space agency.
For the manoeuvre, the thrusters of the Russian Progress 81 shuttle anchored to the ISS will be used: the ignition, scheduled for 14:42 Italian time, will allow the debris to be dribbled, which otherwise could have passed less than 400 meters away.
The American spacewalk was scheduled at 13:45, for a duration of seven hours, to install the fourth of six new flexible solar panels intended to increase the electricity available to the ISS by 30%.
Last week there was a stop to the spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts, due to the leak recorded on the Soyuz MS-22 capsule.
