Astronaut Peggy Whitson radioed in to report that a piece was missing – and NASA is to monitor the cloth bundle to ensure it doesn’t come back and hit the station. The cloth shielding is used to protect the station against micrometeorites from space – and astronauts Whitson and Shane Kimbrough were conducting a spacewalk to install four pieces of it.
Our beautiful planet Earth in the reflection of my visor during today’s #spacewalk with @AstroPeggy. pic.twitter.com/OZJzz2Ea24 — Shane Kimbrough (@astro_kimbrough) March 30, 2017
NASA spokesman Dan Huot said that the three remaining shields were installed successfully, and the astronauts installed the cover of the docking port as a makeshift shield. Whitson radioed in, ‘You guys came up with a fantastic plan — on short notice. That’s amazing.’
The spacewalk was Whitson’s eighth – the most ever performed by a woman, and making her the third-most-experienced spacewalker of all time. Whitson has now logged 59 hours, behind Anatoly Solovyev, who has 68 hours and astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria, who has 67.
Astronauts lose part of the Space Station after it floats away on spacewalk
