NASA abruptly halted the spacewalk of two astronauts because of “minor health problems,” the Associated Press reported on Aug. 23.
According to the original plan, U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who is currently on the International Space Station, and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Yoshihiko Asahi will perform a mission on August 24 to install brackets for the station’s new solar panels. 23, NASA announced that the spacewalk mission was postponed, less than 24 hours before the mission.
NASA officials said astronaut Van der Hey suffered “a minor health problem” and that the delay in the mission would not affect the progress of the mission, stressing that it was not an emergency, but gave no further details. NASA says the U.S. Space Exploration Technologies Co. (SpaceX) Cargo Dragon spacecraft will reschedule Van der Hei and Starboard after arriving at the International Space Station in late August and Russian Explorer astronauts complete two spacewalks in early September.
Van der Hey, 54, a retired U.S. Army colonel, was selected to NASA’s astronaut team in 2009 and went into space in 2017 and completed a spacewalk. He entered space for the second time in April and has been working on the International Space Station until next spring.
