Page 28 - aruba-today-20170401

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 1 april 2017

Spacewalkers lose piece of shielding, use patch instead

MARCIA DUNN sphere and burn up.
AP Aerospace Writer The relocated dock-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ing port will serve as one
(AP) — Spacewalking as- of two parking spots for
tronauts carried out an im- commercial crew cap-
promptu patch job outside sules under development
the International Space by SpaceX and Boeing. It
Station on Thursday, after was disconnected during
losing a vital piece of cloth a spacewalk last Friday by
shielding when it floated Kimbrough,
away. the space station’s com-
As the drama unfolded, mander and a six-time
Peggy Whitson set a record spacewalker. Then flight
for the most spacewalks by controllers in Houston
a woman — eight — and moved it to a new and
the most accumulated better location Sunday.
time spent spacewalking The spacewalkers hooked
— just over 53 hours. up heater cables to the
The bundled-up shield port Thursday.
somehow came loose as Midway through the sev-
Whitson and Shane Kim- en-hour excursion, Whitson
brough worked to install surpassed the record for
micrometeorite protection women of 50 hours and 40
over a spot left exposed In this Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 file photo, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, member of the main crew minutes of total accumu-
when a new docking port of the expedition to the International Space Station, waves from a bus prior the launch of Soyuz lated spacewalking time,
was relocated. MS-3 spaceship at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan held by former station resi-
Mission Control monitored .Associated Press dent Sunita Williams.
the shield as it drifted away Williams is one of four NASA
and, a couple hours later, quickly came up with a TV the same material as the about the mishap. She was astronauts who will make
determined it posed no risk MacGyver-like plan for a shielding, according to delighted, though, by how the initial test flights of the
to the 250-mile-high out- patch. The astronauts filled Mission Control, and just well everything turned out. SpaceX Crew Dragon and
post. It was visible in the the gap using the cover as capable of protecting “You guys came up with a Boeing Starliner capsules.
distance as a white dot. that they had just removed against potential strikes by fantastic plan — on short The first flight could occur
As Whitson and Kimbrough from the relocated dock- bits of space debris and notice. as early as next year.
installed the three remain- ing port. providing thermal control. That’s amazing,” Whitson Whitson is now No. 5 on the
ing shields, Mission Control The cover is made of The entire space station is radioed. all-time spacewalking list.
protected, in some fash- Spacewalkers have lost A Russian holds the top
ion, against possible debris things before, including an spot: Anatoly Solovyev with
strikes. entire tool kit in 2008. But 16 spacewalks for a grand
It was not immediately the getaway items are usu- total of 82 hours.
clear how the shield got ally small, like bolts. The 57-year-old Whitson
away, said NASA spokes- The lost fabric shield is has been in orbit since No-
man Dan Huot. It’s sup- relatively large: It weighs vember.
posed to be tethered to 18 pounds and, when un- This is her third space sta-
the station or spacewalker folded, measures about 5 tion stint. Altogether, she’s
at all times. Frustration was feet by 2 feet and is about spent more than 500 days
evident in Whitson’s voice 2 inches thick. It eventu- off the planet, also more
as she told Mission Control ally will re-enter the atmo- than any other woman.q