NASA Delays Spacewalk Over Risk From Russian Missile Test Space Junk

Russia has shown it is willing to imperil the exploration and use of outer space

- Oliver Holmes

Nasa has postponed a planned spacewalk outside the International Space Station because of flying “debris”, two weeks after Russia blew up one of its own satellites in a missile test that created clouds of zooming shrapnel in orbit.

Washington’s space agency did not mention the Russian test in its announcement, but a Nasa official had warned a day earlier of a slightly elevated risk to astronauts caused by the 14 November incident.

The strike generated thousands of pieces of “space junk” that are now hurtling around the Earth at about 17,000 mph – much faster than the speed of a bullet. At that velocity, even tiny flecks of paint can damage spacecraft, and spacesuits are even more vulnerable.

Yesterday, about five hours before the astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron were due to venture outside the space station, Nasa said on Twitter that the spacewalk to fix a failed antenna had been cancelled.