NASA TV to air US spacewalk….

Ken McCormick

NASA TV to air US spacewalk, briefing on space station docking port install

Experts from NASA will preview an upcoming spacewalk with two American astronauts outside the International Space Station to complete the outfitting of docking ports during a briefing at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 16, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.


NASA astronauts Christina Koch (center top) and Nick Hague (suit with red stripe on legs) conduct a spacewalk March 29 to swap batteries and install adapter plates on the International Space Station’s Port-4 truss structure. Credits: NASA

Live coverage of the briefing will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Participants in the briefing are:

  • Kirk Shireman, International Space Station program manager
  • Scott Stover, NASA spacewalk flight director
  • Alex Kanelakos, lead spacewalk officer

Expedition 60 Flight Engineers Nick Hague, KG5TMV and Andrew Morgan, KI5AAA of NASA will begin their planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk from inside the Quest airlock about 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21. Live NASA Television coverage will begin at 6:30 a.m. The duo will assist in the installation of International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) to Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 on the space-facing side of the station’s Harmony module.

IDA-3 will provide a second docking port to the International Space Station to accommodate the future arrivals of Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon  commercial crew spacecraft. The docking port was launched to the station last month on a SpaceX Dragon on the company’s 18th commercial cargo resupply services mission to the station. IDA-2 was installed to the forward end of the Harmony module in the summer of 2016.

NASA’s commercial crew partnership with Boeing and SpaceX will restore launches of American astronauts from American soil on American rockets and maximize the time U.S. crews can dedicate to scientific research and technological advances aboard the orbiting laboratory to enable the agency’s ambitious goals for the Artemis lunar exploration program and future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The spacewalkers also will install a new high definition television camera on the station’s starboard truss as part of an ongoing upgrade of the station’s external cameras.

Hague will be extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) wearing the spacesuit with the red stripes, and Morgan will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2) wearing the suit with no stripes.

The spacewalk will be the 218th in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades and the fifth outside the station this year. It will be the third spacewalk for Hague and the first for Morgan.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Learn more about International Space Station research, operations, and its crew at:
http://www.nasa.gov/station