NASA, ESA astronauts set for spacewalk to replace key antenna

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot are set to conduct a spacewalk Tuesday outside the International Space Station to replace a key communications antenna linking the orbiting laboratory with mission controllers on Earth.

The spacewalk, designated US Spacewalk 97, is scheduled to begin at about 8.35 am EDT (1235GMT), according to NASA. Menon and Adenot are expected to spend about six and a half hours outside the station, working from the Quest airlock and along the station's Z1 truss.

Their primary task will be to remove a failed Space-to-Ground antenna and install a spare. The antenna provides a high-speed communications link between the station and NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, enabling the transmission of data and voice communications between Earth and the orbiting laboratory.

The operation is part of routine but essential maintenance of the International Space Station, which has been continuously inhabited for more than 25 years.

Menon will be making his second spacewalk in less than two weeks. He and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir spent 6 hours and 27 minutes outside the station on Aug. 6, preparing part of its power system for the future installation of another roll-out solar array.

For Adenot, Tuesday's operation will mark her first spacewalk. She is also set to become the first French woman to perform a spacewalk and the second European woman to do so, following Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022.