The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has postponed a spacewalk scheduled to occur outside the International Space Station, after getting word of a possible safety threat from some nearby space debris.
In a short blog post, NASA says that it didn’t have enough time to “properly assess the risk” the debris posed to the astronauts, and so the agency opted to postpone the spacewalk until further notice.
It’s the second time in the last two weeks that space debris has upended plans on the International Space Station. On November 15th, the astronauts on board the ISS were awakened extra early by mission controllers and told to shelter in place after Russia conducted an anti-satellite, or ASAT, test. Using some kind of kinetic missile, Russia blew up one of its own satellites, creating at least 1,700 pieces of trackable debris and thousands of smaller pieces that cannot be tracked. As the satellite was orbiting relatively close to the ISS, the debris cloud periodically passed near the ISS.
NASA did not say if the debris that postponed the spacewalk is from the same ASAT test, and the space agency did not immediately respond to a verge request for comment. However, NASA insinuated the delay will not have a big impact on the station. “The space station schedule and operations are able to easily accommodate the delay of the spacewalk,” NASA wrote in its blog post.
