Now Reading: NASA astronauts Menon, Meir upgrade ISS power in spacewalk
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NASA astronauts Menon, Meir upgrade ISS power in spacewalk
NASA astronauts Anil Menon and Jessica Meir completed a six-hour 27-minute spacewalk on Thursday to install mounting hardware for a power channel on the International Space Station. The upgrade, on the Starboard…
The Story in Brief
NASA astronauts Anil Menon and Jessica Meir completed a six-hour 27-minute spacewalk on Thursday to install mounting hardware for a power channel on the International Space Station. The upgrade, on the Starboard 6 truss, will allow future roll-out solar arrays (IROSA) to boost the station’s power supply and support its eventual controlled deorbit. It was Menon’s first spacewalk and Meir’s sixth, the 281st in ISS history.
During the spacewalk, Menon worked from a foot restraint on the truss while the pair connected cables and installed insulation. Two more IROSA units are due to arrive later this year. The mission is the first of three planned for August; the next, on August 13, will replace a critical Space-to-Ground antenna.
The Indian Opinion
The coverage rightly cheers Anil Menon as the latest Indian-origin astronaut, but the spacewalk itself is a routine power-grid upgrade, not a moonshot. Overplaying the 'Indian pride' angle risks missing the point: the ISS is ageing, and these solar arrays are meant to keep it alive for controlled deorbiting. The real test is whether India’s own Gaganyaan programme can sustain a similar pace of incremental, hardware-intensive missions. Can ISRO match NASA’s decades of orbital maintenance experience?
Source: hindustantimes.com
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