In the wake of an unsuccessful attempt to install a replacement power-switching unit on the truss of the International Space Station, two crew members will venture outside for a second time in six days to complete the work. NASA Television will provide live coverage of the spacewalk beginning at 6 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 5. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin about 7:15 a.m.
Expedition 32 flight engineers Sunita Williams of NASA and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency again will don U.S. spacesuits and exit the Quest airlock to complete the installation of a spare Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU). The MBSU is a boxy, 236-pound component that relays power from the station’s solar arrays to its systems. An 8- hour, 17-minute spacewalk on Aug. 30 — the third longest in history — ended with the spacewalkers unable to finish bolting the switching unit into its housing on the truss.
This spacewalk will be the 165th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the sixth in Williams’ career and the second for Hoshide. Williams will wear the spacesuit bearing red stripes. Hoshide will be clad in the spacesuit with no markings.
NASA will conduct a multi-center news conference following the conclusion of Wednesday’s spacewalk. The news conference will be broadcast on NASA TV and include space station program and mission operations representatives. News media representatives who would like to participate by telephone must call the newsroom at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston 15 minutes before the news conference begins. Priority will be given to journalists participating in person. Questions by phone will be taken as time permits. Journalists should check the NASA TV schedule Wednesday for the news conference start time.
For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station
