The spacewalk scheduled for Tuesday was pushed back due to the potential hazard of almost 2,000 fragments of debris floating in low-Earth orbit.
NASA’s spacewalk that was planned to occur outside of the International Space Station was rescheduled due to a threat of space debris, according to their Twitter post.
Two weeks ago, a Russian anti-satellite test that the U.S. called “reckless,” resulted in over 1,700 pieces of left-over debris in Earth’s orbit, leading NASA to receive a warning about the potential danger that could come from, "...the lack of opportunity to properly assess the risk (the debris) could pose to the astronauts." according to a NASA blog post.
According to CBS News, everything in low-Earth orbit is moving at a speed of almost five miles per second, making any debris impact a potential threat, especially if they are too small to be tracked, leaving room for them to hit without any advanced warning.
NASA completed a more detailed risk assessment by Tuesday afternoon, letting the astronauts know that the spacewalk could be completed on Thursday, according to the outlet.
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