Make That A No — NASA Calls Off Spacewalk

NASA abruptly decided to cancel a spacewalk they had just given the green light hours earlier because of a debris threat they need time to analyze. They did not indicate the source of the debris. [UPDATE: The spacewalk has been rescheduled for December 2 after NASA determined the debris did not pose a risk.]

Yesterday afternoon NASA officials gave a news conference about the spacewalk NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron were to begin at 7:10 am ET this morning.  They explained that although the micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) environment around the International Space Station increased by 7 percent after Russia’s anitisatellite (ASAT) test two weeks ago, it was still within acceptable limits.

That changed later, however, and in a blog post on the ISS website early this morning the agency announced the spacewalk has been postponed.

The evening of Monday, Nov. 29, NASA received a debris notification for the International Space Station. Due to the lack of opportunity to properly assess the risk it could pose to the astronauts, teams have decided to delay the spacewalk planned for Tuesday, Nov. 30 until more information is available. The space station schedule and operations are able to easily accommodate the delay of the spacewalk. The latest information and future spacewalk dates will be shared on https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation.

The announcement does not state whether the debris is from the Russian ASAT test or another source. Low Earth orbit has a lot of debris from satellites launched by many countries, including the United States.