Indian-Americcan astronaut Sunita Williams and her Japanese colleague on board the International Space Station on Thursday ventured outside the lab to perform maintenance tasks of their home in orbit.
Nasa astronaut Williams and Japanese flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide aim to replace a faulty power-switching unit and a failing robotic arm camera of the International Space Station. This is the fifth spacewalk undertaken by 46-year-old Williams. On August 20, two Russian astronauts worked outside the orbiting lab to relocate a cargo boom.
But Thursday’s spacewalk is the first performed by a US astronaut since the final shuttle mission in July 2011, floridatoday.com reported.
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‘Blue moon’ to give final wink to armstrong
Washington: There’s a rare “blue moon” on Friday, a fitting wink to Neil Armstrong by the cosmic calendar.
That’s the day of a private service for Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, who died last Saturday in Ohio at age 82. A blue moon occurs when there’s a second full moon in one calendar month. It won’t happen again until July 2015. The full moon cycle is 29.5 days so a blue moon is uncommon and has come to mean something rare. The moon actually won’t be coloured blue. Harvard University astro-nomer Avi Loeb said the moon is far more important to lovers, literature and folklore than to science. Armstrong’s family has suggested paying tribute to him by looking at the moon and giving the astronaut a wink. — AP