Saturday, 30 January 2021_Two spacewalking astronauts faced down and fixed numerous technical glitches during a busy spacewalk Wednesday (Jan. 27), but couldn't quite finish upgrading a European science platform on the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover spent nearly seven hours spacewalking outside the station to work on the Bartolomeo external science platform on the European Space Agency's Columbus module. While the astronauts managed to overcome most of their issues, they were unable to activate the Bartolomeo platform itself because one of three cables refused to connect.
Working with space and ground teams, Glover and Hopkins managed to overcome numerous other issues. These included several stiff cables, an initially unresponsive antenna, and two sticky devices called H-fixtures. The teams also encountered, but moved past, rare astronaut communication issues during Canadarm2 robotic arm operations.
Before the astronauts returned inside, NASA reported that a new high-speed data antenna the spacewalkers installed is "working as it should be." This was a major win for space and ground teams after overcoming several failed attempts to turn on heaters during the spacewalk, to support the antenna's operations.
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