A spacewalk planned for Tuesday to repair a faulty antenna on the International Space Station was postponed indefinitely, NASA said, citing a “debris notification” it received for the orbiting research laboratory.
Two US astronauts had been scheduled to venture outside the space station at 7:10 a.m. Eastern time (1210 GMT) to begin their work, facing what NASA officials had called a slightly elevated risk posed by debris from a Russian anti-satellite missile test this month.
But about five hours before the outing was to have commenced, NASA said on Twitter that the spacewalk had been called off for the time being.
“NASA received a debris notification for the space station. Due to the lack of opportunity to properly assess the risk it could pose to the astronauts, teams have decided to delay the Nov. 30 spacewalk until more information is available,” the space agency tweeted.
It was not made clear how close debris had come to the space station, orbiting about 250 miles (402 km) above the Earth, or whether it was related to the Russian missile test.
NASA TV had planned to provide live coverage of the 6-1/2-hour “extravehicular activity,” or EVA, operation by astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Brown. The outing would be the fifth spacewalk for Marshburn, 61, a medical doctor and former flight surgeon with two previous trips to orbit, and the first for Barron, 34, a US Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer on her debut spaceflight for NASA.
The objective is to remove a faulty S-band radio communications antenna assembly, now more than 20 years old, and replace it with a new spare stowed outside the space station.
According to plans, Marshburn was to have worked with Barron while positioned at the end of a robotic arm operated from inside the station by German astronaut Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency, with help from NASA crewmate Raja Chari.
The four arrived at the space station Nov. 11 in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, joining two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut already aboard the orbiting outpost.
Four days later, an anti-satellite missile test conducted without warning by Russia generated a debris field in low-Earth orbit, and all seven crew members took shelter in their docked spaceships to allow for a quick getaway until the immediate danger passed, according to NASA.
The residual debris cloud from the blasted satellite has dispersed since then, according to Dana Weigel, NASA deputy manager of the International Space Station (ISS) program.
But NASA calculates that remaining fragments continued to pose a “slightly elevated” background risk to the space station as a whole, and a 7 percent higher risk of spacewalkers’ suits being punctured, as compared to before Russia’s missile test, Weigel told reporters on Monday.
Although NASA has yet to fully quantify additional hazards posed by more than 1,700 larger fragments it is tracking around the station’s orbit, the 7 percent higher risk to spacewalkers falls “well within” fluctuations previously seen in “the natural environment,” Weigel said.
Still, mission managers canceled several smaller maintenance tasks under consideration for Tuesday’s spacewalk, Weigel added.
Citing debris risk, NASA delays spacewalk to fix space station antenna
https://arab.news/yb73v
Citing debris risk, NASA delays spacewalk to fix space station antenna
- Two US astronauts had been scheduled to venture outside the space station at 7:10 a.m. Eastern time (1210 GMT) to begin their work
- It was not made clear how close debris had come to the space station, orbiting about 250 miles (402 km) above the Earth, or whether it was related to the Russian missile test
Tarique Rahman-led BNP set to form Bangladesh’s next government after major election win
- Jamaat-e-Islami, banned during Hasina’s government, won 68 seats
- Majority of Bangladeshis endorsed sweeping reforms in national referendum
DHAKA: The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Tarique Rahman, is set to form the country’s next government after securing a more than two-thirds majority in the first elections since a student-led uprising in 2024 ousted ex-prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.
The BNP has won at least 209 seats out of the 299 contested, according to the latest election results released by the Election Commission on Friday, paving the way for Rahman to become the country’s next prime minister.
Jamaat-e-Islami, banned during Hasina’s 15 years in power, has registered its best performance yet, winning at least 68 seats and emerging as the main opposition party.
The National Citizen Party, which was born out of the 2024 protests, was in third place with six seats, including for its leader Nahid Islam, while Hasina’s Awami League was barred from participating in the elections.
The majority of Bangladeshis also reportedly voted “yes” in a national referendum on the “July National Charter” that was held alongside the general vote on Thursday.
Named after the month when the uprising that toppled Hasina began, the charter is aimed at achieving sweeping democratic reforms to prevent authoritarian administrations, including term limits for premiers, stronger presidential powers and greater judicial independence, while also proposing increased representation of women in parliament.
The BNP-led government is likely to follow the commitments made under the charter, said Prof. A.S.M. Amanullah, vice chancellor of the National University in Dhaka, adding that the implementation of the July charter was also included in the party’s election manifesto that covers reform of the state and rebuilding of the economy.
“Mr. Tarique Rahman is a highly trained politician, highly sensitive politician, and he takes decisions based on facts. I believe he prepared himself to run this country locally and play a role internationally,” Amanullah told Arab News.
Rahman is the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and former President Ziaur Rahman. He returned to Bangladesh late last year after nearly two decades of self-imposed exile in the UK, and assumed BNP’s leadership days later, following his mother’s death from a prolonged illness.
In an interview with Arab News earlier this week, the 60-year-old pledged to pursue accountability for the former leadership and meet the political and economic expectations of the youth movement that brought about the change.
The new government is likely to be a mix of young and old politicians, Amanullah said, with Jemaat-e-Islami set to balance out the BNP’s rule.
“This is a very good size of opposition to press the issues or to challenge the government on different issues, different policies and decisions of the government. I’m hopeful about Jemaat,” he said.
“The way the people voted for these major two parties, the BNP and Jemaat, I think if they could work jointly, Bangladesh should see a stable political situation in the near future.”
Mohiuddin Ahmad, a political analyst and researcher, described Jemaat-e-Islami as “the most organized party” in Bangladesh and that it would therefore play an “instrumental” role as the opposition party.
Voter turnout averaged 59.44 percent, the EC said, with many Bangladeshis considering this week’s vote as their first “free and fair” election after more than 17 years.
“Such a result of an election we haven’t actually experienced before,” Muhiuddin Iqbal, a history student at Dhaka University, told Arab News.
“The festive feeling has not gone yet, so we’re very much excited about it and hopeful for the future.”
