WASHINGTON — NASA astronauts on the International Space Station are preparing for a spacewalk to repair a robotic arm as safety advisers raise concerns about the long-term health of the station and spacesuits.
Astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams are scheduled to perform a spacewalk June 30 in which they will replace a joint in the Canadarm2 robotic arm. That work will be the sole task of the spacewalk, scheduled to last six and a half hours.
Bill Spetch, NASA ISS operations and integration manager, said during a June 25 briefing that the arm did not move as expected, with an elevated motor current, during routine operations last month. Engineers determined that a wrist joint was malfunctioning, requiring replacement using a spare joint already on the station.
“Systems like Canadarm2 were designed from the beginning with replaceable components and were planned with maintenance in mind, and this is no exception,” he said.
The upcoming spacewalk, the 280th in the history of the ISS program, is the first in a series expected over the next several months. Three more are planned, starting as soon as August, to install components for a new solar array, fix electrical jumpers and replace a communications antenna.
