Jump to content

NASA Sets Coverage of Spacewalks, News Conference for Station Upgrades


Recommended Posts

  • Publishers
Posted

NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg rides the Canadarm2 robotic arm while maneuvering a roll-out solar array toward the International Space Station's truss structure 257 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
(June 9, 2023) — NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg rides the Canadarm2 robotic arm while maneuvering a roll-out solar array toward the International Space Station’s truss structure 257 miles above the Pacific Ocean. In the rear, is the SpaceX Dragon crew vehicle that docked to the Harmony module’s forward port on March 3 carrying four SpaceX Crew-6 crew members.
Credits: NASA

Two upcoming spacewalks outside the International Space Station to conduct science research and station maintenance will feature NASA astronauts, both first-time spacewalkers.

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara will participate in spacewalks on Thursday, Oct. 12, and Friday, Oct. 20, with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen joining her on the first, and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli joining her on the second.

Agency experts will preview the spacewalks during a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 6, from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Live coverage of the news conference and spacewalks will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

News conference participants are:

  • Dana Weigel, deputy manager, International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson
  • Elias Myrmo, spacewalk flight director, NASA Johnson
  • Faruq Sabur, U.S. spacewalk 89 officer, NASA Johnson
  • Sandra Fletcher, U.S. spacewalk 90 officer, NASA Johnson

Media interested in participating in person or by phone must contact the Johnson newsroom no later than 10 a.m., Friday, Oct. 6, by calling 281-483-5111 or emailing jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. To ask questions by phone, reporters must dial into the news conference no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the call. Questions may also be submitted on social media using #AskNASA.

The first spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and last about six hours with NASA TV coverage beginning at 8:30 a.m.

On Oct. 12, O’Hara and Mogensen will exit the station’s Quest airlock to collect samples for analysis to see whether microorganisms may exist on the exterior of the orbital complex. They also will replace a high-definition camera on the port truss of the station and conduct other maintenance work to prepare for future spacewalks.

O’Hara will serve as extravehicular activity (EVA) crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Mogensen will serve as extravehicular crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. U.S. spacewalk 89 will be the first spacewalk for both crew members.

On Oct. 20, O’Hara and Moghbeli will complete the removal of a faulty electronics box, called a Radio Frequency Group, from a communications antenna on the starboard truss of the station and replace one of twelve Trundle Bearing Assemblies on the port truss Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. The bearings enable the station’s solar arrays to rotate properly to track the sun as the station orbits the Earth. During this spacewalk, Moghbeli will serve as EVA crew member 1 and O’Hara will serve as EVA crew member 2. U.S. spacewalk 90 will be the first spacewalk for Moghbeli and second for O’Hara.

The second spacewalk will begin at 7:30 a.m. and last approximately six and a half hours with NASA TV coverage beginning at 6 a.m.

Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on the station blog, Instagram, Facebook, and X.

Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

Lora Bleacher / Julian Coltre
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
lora.v.bleacher@nasa.gov / julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

Share

Details

Last Updated
Oct 03, 2023

View the full article

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Similar Topics

    • By NASA
      NASA Selects 2025 Astronaut Candidates
    • By NASA
      Explore Hubble Science Hubble Space Telescope NASA’s Hubble Sees White… Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Universe Uncovered Hubble’s Partners in Science AI and Hubble Science Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Science Operations Astronaut Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities 3D Hubble Models Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources More 35th Anniversary Online Activities   5 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Sees White Dwarf Eating Piece of Pluto-Like Object
      This artist’s concept shows a white dwarf surrounded by a large debris disk. Debris from pieces of a captured, Pluto-like object is falling onto the white dwarf. Credits:
      Artwork: NASA, Tim Pyle (NASA/JPL-Caltech) In our nearby stellar neighborhood, a burned-out star is snacking on a fragment of a Pluto-like object. With its unique ultraviolet capability, only NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope could identify that this meal is taking place.
      The stellar remnant is a white dwarf about half the mass of our Sun, but that is densely packed into a body about the size of Earth. Scientists think the dwarf’s immense gravity pulled in and tore apart an icy Pluto analog from the system’s own version of the Kuiper Belt, an icy ring of debris that encircles our solar system. The findings were reported on September 18 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
      The researchers were able to determine this carnage by analyzing the chemical composition of the doomed object as its pieces fell onto the white dwarf. In particular, they detected “volatiles” — substances with low boiling points — including carbon, sulphur, nitrogen, and a high oxygen content that suggests the strong presence of water.
      “We were surprised,” said Snehalata Sahu of the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. Sahu led the data analysis of a Hubble survey of white dwarfs. “We did not expect to find water or other icy content. This is because the comets and Kuiper Belt-like objects are thrown out of their planetary systems early, as their stars evolve into white dwarfs. But here, we are detecting this very volatile-rich material. This is surprising for astronomers studying white dwarfs as well as exoplanets, planets outside our solar system.”
      This artist’s concept shows a white dwarf surrounded by a large debris disk. Debris from pieces of a captured, Pluto-like object is falling onto the white dwarf. Artwork: NASA, Tim Pyle (NASA/JPL-Caltech) Only with Hubble
      Using Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, the team found that the fragments were composed of 64 percent water ice. The fact that they detected so much ice meant that the pieces were part of a very massive object that formed far out in the star system’s icy Kuiper Belt analog. Using Hubble data, scientists calculated that the object was bigger than typical comets and may be a fragment of an exo-Pluto.
      They also detected a large fraction of nitrogen – the highest ever detected in white dwarf debris systems. “We know that Pluto’s surface is covered with nitrogen ices,” said Sahu. “We think that the white dwarf accreted fragments of the crust and mantle of a dwarf planet.”
      Accretion of these volatile-rich objects by white dwarfs is very difficult to detect in visible light. These volatile elements can only be detected with Hubble’s unique ultraviolet light sensitivity. In optical light, the white dwarf would appear ordinary.
      About 260 light-years away, the white dwarf is a relatively close cosmic neighbor. In the past, when it was a Sun-like star, it would have been expected to host planets and an analog to our Kuiper Belt.
      Like seeing our Sun in future
      Billions of years from now, when our Sun burns out and collapses to a white dwarf, Kuiper Belt objects will be pulled in by the stellar remnant’s immense gravity. “These planetesimals will then be disrupted and accreted,” said Sahu. “If an alien observer looks into our solar system in the far future, they might see the same kind of remains we see today around this white dwarf.”
      The team hopes to use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to detect molecular features of volatiles such as water vapor and carbonates by observing this white dwarf in infrared light. By further studying white dwarfs, scientists can better understand the frequency and composition of these volatile-rich accretion events.
      Sahu is also following the recent discovery of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. She is eager to learn its chemical composition, especially its fraction of water. “These types of studies will help us learn more about planet formation. They can also help us understand how water is delivered to rocky planets,” said Sahu.
      Boris Gänsicke, of the University of Warwick and a visitor at Spain’s Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, was the principal investigator of the Hubble program that led to this discovery. “We observed over 500 white dwarfs with Hubble. We’ve already learned so much about the building blocks and fragments of planets, but I’ve been absolutely thrilled that we now identified a system that resembles the objects in the frigid outer edges of our solar system,” said Gänsicke. “Measuring the composition of an exo-Pluto is an important contribution toward our understanding of the formation and evolution of these bodies.”
      The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for more than three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
      To learn more about Hubble, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/hubble 
      Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Related Images & Videos
      White Dwarf Accreting Icy Object (Illustration)
      This artist’s concept shows a white dwarf surrounded by a large debris disk. Debris from pieces of a captured, Pluto-like object is falling onto the white dwarf.




      Share








      Details
      Last Updated Sep 18, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
      Greenbelt, Maryland
      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
      Ann Jenkins
      Space Telescope Science Institute
      Baltimore, Maryland
      Ray Villard
      Space Telescope Science Institute
      Baltimore, Maryland
      Related Terms
      Hubble Space Telescope Astrophysics Division Dwarf Planets Goddard Space Flight Center The Kuiper Belt White Dwarfs
      Related Links and Documents
      Science Paper: Discovery of an icy and nitrogen-rich extra-solar planetesimal, PDF (674.84 KB)

      Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
      Hubble Space Telescope


      Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.


      Hubble Science Highlights



      Hubble Images



      Hubble News


      View the full article
    • By NASA
      NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23 Installation
    • By NASA
      NASA Prelaunch News Conference on Three New Space Weather Missions (Sept. 21, 2025)
    • By NASA
      NASA Science News Conference on Three New Space Weather Missions (Sept. 21, 2025)
  • Check out these Videos

×
×
  • Create New...