MIAMI: Two NASA astronauts stepped out on a spacewalk on Wednesday for upgrades and maintenance at the orbiting International Space Station, the US space agency said.
Spaceflight veteran Scott Kelly, who is in the midst of a year-long stint at the ISS, began the first spacewalk of his career at 8:03 a.m. (1203 GMT), according to a live broadcast on NASA television.
His colleague, flight engineer Kjell Lindgren, is also embarking on his first spacewalk, the US space agency said.
Lindgren accidentally turned on his spacesuit’s water switch too early in the process of preparing to float outside the airlock, and NASA experts at mission control in Houston were closely monitoring the cooling system on his spacesuit “just to be sure,” a NASA commentator said.
Their tasks during the six and a half hour spacewalk include installing a thermal cover on a state-of-the-art particle physics detector, known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which has been attached to the space station since 2011. They also plan to “apply grease to components on the space station’s robotic Canadarm2, and route cables to prepare for new docking ports for US commercial crew spacecraft,” NASA said.
NASA astronauts kick off spacewalk for upgrades at ISS
NASA astronauts kick off spacewalk for upgrades at ISS
Trump says school strike that killed 150 people ‘done by Iran’
- Tehran has blamed the US for the strike, which happened in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province on Feb. 28
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for what the country’s authorities said was a deadly strike on a school in the southern town of Minab, in Hormozgan province.
“We think it was done by Iran. Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
According to Iranian authorities, a strike hit a girls’ elementary school last Saturday, killing more than 150 people, mostly students.
Israel and the United States have not claimed responsibility for the reported attack — with US officials saying it remains under investigation — while Iran has blamed Washington for the strike.
AFP has neither been able to access the site in order to verify the incident, nor to obtain independent confirmation of a toll.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had targeted a US base in the UAE that they alleged had been used as a launchpad for the strike.
“Al-Dhafra air base, belonging to American terrorists in the region, was targeted using drones and precision missiles,” the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state TV.
The Pentagon has confirmed it is investigating, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US would “not deliberately target a school.”
The New York Times newspaper reported Thursday that US military statements indicating forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where a Revolutionary Guards’ base is located, “suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.”
An analysis of social media posts from the time of the attack, as well as photos and videos from witnesses, indicated that the school had been struck at the same time as Guards’ naval base sites, the Times said.
