NASA’s Expedition 66 Crew to Conduct Two Spacewalks to Upgrade Space Station Starting March 15

By  //  March 11, 2022

NASA & SPACE NEWS

Crew members from International Space Station Expedition 66 will conduct two spacewalks Tuesday, March 15, and Wednesday, March 23, to continue upgrades to the orbiting laboratory. (NASA image)

(NASA) – Crew members from International Space Station Expedition 66 will conduct two spacewalks Tuesday, March 15, and Wednesday, March 23, to continue upgrades to the orbiting laboratory.

NASA Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari will conduct the Tuesday, March 15, spacewalk, designated U.S. EVA 79, assembling and installing modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades.

The pair will install brackets and struts to support the future installation of an ISS Roll-Out Solar Array. So far, two of six iROSAs have been deployed on the station with four additional arrays to be delivered.

The arrays will ultimately augment six of the station’s eight power channels, increasing the station’s total available power from 160 kilowatts to up to 215 kilowatts.

Barron will serve as extravehicular crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Chari will serve as an extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2) and will wear a suit with no stripes. The spacewalk will be the second of Barron’s career and the first for Chari.

For the Wednesday, March 23, spacewalk, designated U.S. EVA 80, two astronauts will install hoses on a Radiator Beam Valve Module that routes ammonia through the station’s heat-rejecting radiators to keep systems at the proper temperature.

The crew members will also install a power and data cable on the Columbus module’s Bartolomeo science platform, replace an external camera on the station’s truss, and conduct other upgrades to station hardware.

Astronaut roles for the Wednesday, March 23, spacewalk will be confirmed after the first spacewalk is completed.

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