Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
The International Space Station is a home for astronauts in space.
Two astronauts, Jessica Meir and Anil Menon, will go outside the station.
Going outside a spacecraft is called a spacewalk.
They will fix parts that give the space station power.
- space station
- a large spacecraft where astronauts live and work in orbit
- astronaut
- a person trained to travel and work in space
- spacewalk
- when an astronaut goes outside a spacecraft while in space
- outside
- not inside; in the open area beyond a place
- fix
- to repair or improve something
- power
- energy used to run machines and equipment
- part
- a piece of a larger machine or object
- solar array
- a set of panels that turn sunlight into electricity
Level 2 — Elementary
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon are getting ready for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on August 6.
The spacewalk is expected to last about six and a half hours. It will be Meir's sixth spacewalk, but Menon's very first.
During the spacewalk, the astronauts will modify one of the station's power channels to prepare for a new solar array that will arrive later this year.
This spacewalk is one of three that NASA has scheduled for August, as the agency works to keep the aging space station running smoothly.
- prepare
- to get ready for something that will happen
- expected
- believed likely to happen, based on a plan
- modify
- to make small changes to something
- power channel
- a pathway that carries electrical power through a system
- arrive
- to reach a place or destination
- schedule
- to plan for something to happen at a set time
- agency
- an organization that carries out a specific kind of work
- aging
- becoming older, often used to describe equipment in use for a long time
Level 3 — Intermediate
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon are finalizing preparations for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station scheduled for August 6, a roughly six-and-a-half-hour excursion that will mark Meir's sixth spacewalk and Menon's debut.
The primary objective involves modifying the station's 3B power channel, laying the groundwork for the future installation of an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, which will be the seventh such array added to boost the station's electrical capacity.
This excursion is one of three spacewalks NASA has scheduled for August, part of a broader effort to sustain critical systems aboard a station that has now been continuously occupied for over a quarter century.
The remaining two spacewalks, planned for later in the month, will address a communications antenna and additional power and data cabling required to support ongoing station operations.
- finalize
- to complete or settle the last details of a plan
- excursion
- a short journey undertaken for a specific purpose
- objective
- a goal or aim that a task is designed to achieve
- groundwork
- preliminary work that lays the basis for future work
- capacity
- the maximum amount a system can produce or hold
- sustain
- to keep something going or maintain it over time
- critical system
- essential equipment whose failure would seriously disrupt operations
- occupied
- inhabited or in continuous use by people
Level 4 — Advanced
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon are in the final stages of preparation for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station scheduled for August 6, an approximately six-and-a-half-hour excursion that will constitute Meir's sixth career spacewalk and Menon's inaugural venture beyond the station's hull.
The excursion's principal objective centers on modifying the station's 3B power channel, an undertaking that lays essential groundwork for the eventual installation of an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, the seventh such array intended to augment the outpost's electrical generation capacity.
This spacewalk represents one component of a trio scheduled for August, reflecting NASA's sustained investment in maintaining critical infrastructure aboard a station that has remained continuously inhabited for more than a quarter century.
The two subsequent excursions, slated for later in the month, are designed to address the replacement of a communications antenna alongside the connection of additional power and data cabling essential to ongoing station operations.
- inaugural
- marking the beginning or first instance of something
- hull
- the outer body or shell of a craft, such as a spacecraft or ship
- principal
- most important; primary
- undertaking
- a task or project that someone commits to carrying out
- augment
- to make something greater by adding to it
- outpost
- a small, remote settlement or station
- infrastructure
- the basic physical systems needed for an organization to function
- slated
- scheduled or planned for a future event
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