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*NASA to Provide Briefing, Coverage of Spacewalks for Station Upgrades*
iss069e005732orig.jpeg
NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Steve Bowen is pictured
outside the International Space Station during his eighth career spacewalk,
during which he routed cables and installed insulation to ready the orbital
outpost for its next set of roll-out solar arrays.
*/Credits: NASA/*
Two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station will conduct a
pair of spacewalks Friday, June 9, and Thursday, June 15, to install two new
solar arrays.
NASA will discuss the upcoming spacewalks during a news conference at 12 p.m.
EDT Thursday, June 1. Live coverage of the news conference and spacewalks
will air on NASA Television, the NASA app [1], and the agency’s website
[2].
News conference participants are:
* Dina Contella, operations integration manager, International Space Station
Program, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
* Diane Dailey, spacewalk flight director, NASA Johnson
* Megan Shutilka, spacewalk officer, NASA Johnson
U.S. media interested in participating in person must contact the Johnson
newsroom no later than 11 a.m., Wednesday, May 31, by calling 281-483-5111 or
into the news conference no later than 11:45 a.m., June 1. Questions also may
be submitted on social media using #AskNASA.
Each spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m. and last about
six-and-a-half hours with NASA coverage beginning at 7:45 a.m.
On June 9, NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg will exit the
station’s Quest airlock to install an upgraded IROSA (International Space
Station Roll-Out Solar Array) on the 1A power channel on the starboard truss
of the station.
Bowen will serve as extravehicular activity (EVA) crew member 1 and will wear
a suit with red stripes. Hoburg will serve as extravehicular crew member 2
and will wear an unmarked suit. U.S. EVA 87 will be the ninth spacewalk for
Bowen and the first for Hoburg.
On June 15, the same pair of astronauts will install an IROSA on the 1B power
channel on the starboard truss. Assignments for U.S. EVA 88 will be
determined at a later date.
The spacewalks will see the fifth and sixth IROSAs [4] mounted to the
existing station solar arrays. The new arrays are 60 feet long by 20 feet
wide (18.2 meters by 6 meters) and will shade a little more than half of the
original arrays, which are 112 feet long by 39 feet wide. The seventh and
eighth IROSAs will be installed on future spacewalks. Each new IROSA will
produce more than 20 kilowatts of electricity, and once all eight are
installed, will enable a 30% increase in power production over the
station’s current arrays.
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