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January 7, 2026<\/p>\n
1 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NASA Postpones Spacewalk Just Hours Before Astronauts Were to Exit ISS<\/p>\n Two NASA astronauts were scheduled to complete a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk on January 8, but the agency has postponed it indefinitely<\/p>\n By Meghan Bartels edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n NASA astronaut Mike Fincke poses inside the International Space Station\u2019s Quest airlock next to a spacesuit.<\/p>\n NASA on Wednesday delayed a scheduled spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS) just hours before two astronauts were due exit the orbiting laboratory.<\/p>\n The agency said in a statement that \u201ca medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon\u201d had caused the postponement. The announcement came just four hours after NASA reported that the space station crew had concluded preparations for the endeavor, which is more formally known as extravehicular activity or EVA. NASA did not provide any details about which astronaut was affected or the nature of the situation, citing medical privacy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation is stable,\u201d the statement read. \u201cNASA will share additional details, including a new date for the upcoming spacewalk, later.\u201d<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman were due to exit the station around 8 a.m. EST on January 8 for a six-and-a-half-hour project to install and prepare some new hardware for a future roll-out solar array. If time had permitted, they were also expected to take photographs of hardware and sample of microorganisms living on the station\u2019s exterior.<\/p>\n The other current ISS crewmembers are NASA astronaut Chris Williams, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Oleg Platonov and Sergei Mikaev, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. All seven crewmembers have been in space for more than five months.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 7, 2026 1 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA Postpones Spacewalk Just Hours Before Astronauts Were to Exit ISS Two NASA astronauts were scheduled to complete a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk on January 8, but the agency has postponed it indefinitely By Meghan Bartels edited by Claire Cameron NASA astronaut Mike Fincke poses inside<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[2724,3668,1927,2534,3331,2890,21855],"class_list":{"0":"post-40755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-astronauts","9":"tag-exit","10":"tag-hours","11":"tag-iss","12":"tag-nasa","13":"tag-postpones","14":"tag-spacewalk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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