Two NASA astronauts are set to complete a long-delayed spacewalk today (March 18), and you can watch the action live.
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Today’s spacewalk was originally scheduled for January 8, with NASA’s Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman to suit up. But that plan was stopped when a then-named member of SpaceX‘s Crew-11 astronaut mission to the ISS experienced a medical problem.
That problem led to Crew-11’s departure 15 Janabout a month earlier than originally planned. It was the first medical evacuation in the ISS’s long history.
Fincke later revealed he was the one who experienced the problem on the track. Neither Fincke nor NASA have disclosed details of the concern, but both have stressed that the astronaut is doing well.
Today’s spacewalk will be the fourth for Meir and the first for Williams. The duo will help prepare one of the station’s power ducts for the future installation of one iROSA (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array).
Another spacewalk with similar goals will follow in the near future; NASA officials have said they will announce the astronauts involved and the target date after the completion of today’s EVA (extravehicular activity). This second spacewalk was also a casualty of the Crew-11 medical evacuation; it was originally supposed to take place on January 15.
The two upcoming spacewalks will be the first ISS EVAs in 2026, the first for the orbiting laboratory’s current Expedition 74 and the 278th and 279th overall in the outpost’s lifetime.
