New Delhi: NASA has postponed a planned spacewalk because of a medical concern with one of the crew members on board the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA has not identified the crew member for medical privacy. There are seven crew members on board the orbital complex, three each from USA and Russia, and one from Japan. NASA has indicated that the situation is stable, and that a new date for the spacewalk will be announced. NASA has a long-standing policy of protecting individual health details, and shares information only in anonymised form for scientific studies, such as the Longitudinal Study of Astronaut Health.
In October 2024, the Crew 8 mission with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps along with the Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. Following which, one of the crew members was hospitalised at the A͏scensio͏n ͏Sac͏red He͏art Pe͏nsacola hospital close to the splashdown zone. The crew member was not identified by NASA for medical privacy reasons. In another example, an astronaut developed a serious blood clot in the jugular vein two months into a crew rotation, with the necessary drugs sent up in a resupply mission. The case is documented in scientific literature, without the name of the crew member.
The planned spacewalks
NASA has planned a pair of spacewalks, each six and a half hours in duration. NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman were scheduled to execute the first spacewalk, to install a solar array on the exterior of the orbital complex for additional power generation. The second spacewalk is for replacing an HD camera, installing a navigational aid for visiting spacecraft, and servicing part of a fluid system. NASA has yet to pick the astronauts for the second spacewalk. These are the 278th and 279th spacewalks towards the assembly, maintenance and upgrades to the ISS.
