After delay, Nasa astronauts set for spacewalk to replace faulty space station antenna

Two NASA astronauts ventured out on a spacewalk on Thursday to replace a faulty antenna on the International Space Station, facing what NASA called a minimally heightened risk posed by orbital debris left from a Russian missile test weeks ago. The start of the "extra-vehicular activity" followed a 48-hour delay prompted by an orbital debris alert - believed to be the first such postponement in more than two decades of space station history - which NASA later deemed inconsequential. The four arrived at the space station Nov. 11 in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, joining two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut, Mark Vande Hei, already aboard the orbiting outpost. NASA has calculated that remaining fragments continue to pose a "slightly elevated" background risk to the space station as a whole, and a 7% higher risk of puncturing spacewalkers' suits, as compared to before Russia's missile test, Weigel told reporters on Monday.