NASA Astronauts Install Parking Spot During ISS Spacewalk

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) successfully carried out the fifth spacewalk this year. For the procedure, two astronauts installed a docking port on the station to provide commercial spacecraft a designated area to park in.

The latest spacewalk, which was the 218th in the history of the ISS, was completed by NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan. It marked Morgan’s first time outside the space station while for Hague, it served as his third spacewalk, Space.com reported.

The event lasted for a total of 6 hours and 30 minutes. The main objective for the spacewalk was to install a docking port on the side of the space station, known as the International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3). This will serve as the primary parking space for the incoming commercial spacecraft from SpaceX and Boeing.

“IDA-3 will provide a second docking port to the International Space Station to accommodate the future arrivals of Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon commercial spacecraft,” NASA said in a statement.

“The docking port was launched to the station last month on a SpaceX Dragon on the company’s 18^th commercial cargo resupply services mission to the station,” the agency added. “IDA-2 was installed to the forward end of the Harmony module in the summer of 2016.”

In addition to the port, the astronauts also installed reflector panels that will serve as docking aids for visiting spacecraft. The astronauts also performed various maintenance tasks outside the space station.

Aside from these, Hague and Morgan also installed and routed cables for the station’s Wi-Fi routers, which will be used by the crew for future experiments. The astronauts initially thought that handling the cables would be difficult since they have been sitting outside the station baking in the Sun for five years. Fortunately, Hague and Morgan were able to easily complete this task and finish their spacewalk on time.

The last time Hague worked outside the station was on March 29. Together with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch, they carried out various maintenance operations outside the ISS. Through this event, Koch became the 14^th woman in history to walk in space.