CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA is moving up the first all-female spacewalk to this week because of a power system failure at the International Space Station.
Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will now venture out Thursday or Friday, instead of next Monday, to deal with the problem. It will be the first spacewalk by only women in more than a half-century of spacewalking.
A critical battery power controller failed over the weekend, prompting the change, NASA officials said Monday. The women will replace the broken component, rather than install new batteries, which was their original job.
Last week, astronauts conducted two spacewalks to replace old batteries that make up the station’s solar power network. They have three more spacewalks to go to finish the battery work. The next one was supposed to be Wednesday, but it’s off for now.
Each of the new lithium-ion batteries needs a device to regulate the amount of charge going in and out. One of these charge regulators did not kick in Friday night, preventing one of the three newly installed batteries from working. Replacing one of these regulators is a generic job for which all potential spacewalkers train, officials said.