Sunita Willams' Spacewalk

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I’m not meant to be blogging, since my final Board exams are almost upon me, but when Sunita Willams, who’s been stuck on the International Space Station for over 10 months, performed a spacewalk in order to replace a planar reflector 260 miles above the South Pacific Ocean, I had to.

The spacewalk done on January 16th was Sunita’s first spacewalk in 12 years, and the eighth in her career.

 NASA has scheduled a second spacewalk on January 23, from 8:15 a.m. onwards. During the second mission, Sunita and Nick Hague will remove a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station's truss, and collect samples of surface material for analysis from the Destiny laboratory and the Quest airlock to see whether microorganisms may exist on the exterior of the orbital complex.

They will also prepare a spare elbow joint for the Canadarm2robotic arm in the event it is needed for a replacement.

Looks like I was panicking over Sunita unnecessarily. In case you missed it, there was also a touching Christmas message from Sunita andher team. Nevertheless, I hope Sunita and Nick return to mother earth at their earliest convenience.

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