Indian American astronaut Raja Chari conducts his first spacewalk
By Ryan General
Indian American astronaut Raja Chari, commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), conducted his first spacewalk on Tuesday.
After more than a week of spacewalk preparation, Chari finally stepped out of the airlock alongside NASA flight engineer Kayla Barron. They spent almost 7 hours in the vacuum of space to carry out ISS upgrades. It was Barron’s second time walking outside the station.
The two astronauts successfully carried out a modification kit installation at the ISS to support an upcoming solar array upgrade. The installation of the new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) will increase the station’s total electrical capacity from 160 kilowatts to a maximum of 215 kilowatts.
The upgrade will significantly help the station respond to the increasing demands of its daily operations as it harnesses energy from the Sun.
Chari, a U.S. Air Force colonel, became an astronaut in 2017. He was appointed as the commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission in 2020 and arrived at the orbiting outpost last year.
The astronauts of the Crew-3 mission will do another spacewalk on March 23 to carry out maintenance work and repairs to the ISS, which is set to operate until 2030.
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