{"id":744035,"date":"2026-08-20T12:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/744035\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T12:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:34:16","slug":"astronauts-remove-failed-antenna-run-out-of-time-to-install-a-spare-spaceflight-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/744035\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronauts remove failed antenna; run out of time to install a spare \u2013 Spaceflight Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74192 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260818_antanna_stowed.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\"  \/>This image above shows the operational SGANT (right) with the dish of the failed unit partially visible near bottom center. Menon, wearing a suit with red stripes, is locked onto the station\u2019s robot arm while Adenot, wearing an unmarked suit, floats below him. Image: NASA<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Anil Menon and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot returned to the International Space Station\u2019s Quest airlock, closed the hatch and began repressurizing at 2:52 p.m. EDT, bringing a six-hour 23-minute spacewalk to a close.<\/p>\n<p>It was the 282nd EVA devoted to station assembly and maintenance, the fifth so far this year, the second for Menon and the first for Adenot, now the first French woman to walk in space. Total ISS EVA time now stands at 74 days 10 hours and 44 minutes since station assembly began in 1998. Menon\u2019s total to date is 12 hours and 50 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s excursion was only partially successful. Menon and Adenot successfully removed a failed space-to-ground antenna, but freeing tight power and data cables, installing locking pins in the antenna\u2019s gimbal assembly and unbolting it from its boom took longer than expected even with a fair amount of elbow grease turning a ratchet wrench.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-74193\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260818_eva97_ends2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\"  \/>Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot float back inside the International Space Station\u2019s airlock. Image: NASA<\/p>\n<p>In the end, flight controllers decided there wasn\u2019t enough time for the spacewalkers to move the failed antenna to its permanent storage location or to retrieve the spare antenna and install it. Instead, the failed antenna was lashed down near its boom, where it will remain indefinitely, and its replacement remains bolted to a storage platform.<\/p>\n<p>The ISS is equipped with two such antennas and only one is needed for normal operations. But it\u2019s a critical system, and managers would like to have two healthy antennas in place for redundancy.<\/p>\n<p>Another spacewalk is on tap next Tuesday, and flight controllers are considering whether to get the replacement antenna installed then or whether to stick with already planned tasks and defer the antenna replacement to a future EVA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This image above shows the operational SGANT (right) with the dish of the failed unit partially visible near&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-744035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}