Once the coolant leak from the Soyuz docked to the International Space Station (ISS) has ended, the American spacewalk is scheduled for 1.45 pm today (Italian time) to install the fourth of the six new flexible solar panels destined to increase solar energy by 30%. electricity available to the ISS.
The extra-vehicular activity (EVA) will engage the two American astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada for about 7 hours.
After the stop to the spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts scheduled for last week due to the loss recorded on the Soyuz MS-22 capsule, today the resumption of the Evas is scheduled, which this time involves Rubio and Cassada who will have to proceed with the installation of a new iRosa panel (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array).
This is the fourth of the six flexible panels that aim to increase the amount of electricity available on the Station, once the installation of the new instruments is completed, it will go from 160 to 215 kilowatts in total.
In these hours, the crew is working on preparations for the activity that involves the 'unrolling' of the right large panels on the ISS on November 27 aboard a Dragon shuttle.
The entire 'walk' will be visible live on NasaTv and if the 7 hours of activity weren't enough, a new Eve has already been scheduled for December 27th.
To assist Rubio and Cassada will be three crew members: Nicole Mann of NASA, Koichi Wakata of the Japanese space agency Jaxa and the commander of the ISS Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos.
Mann and Wakata will in particular be tasked with assisting operations by maneuvering the Canadarm 2 robotic arm.