2026年6月30日 / 美国东部时间下午5:19 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
两名NASA宇航员在国际空间站外进行了一次轨道手术，于周二成功更换了实验室58英尺长机械臂末端附近一个重200磅的损坏“腕部”关节。
“安装得非常好，各位。我知道这项任务十分艰巨，干得漂亮，”加拿大宇航员珍妮·吉本斯在任务控制中心在这场长达7小时20分钟的太空行走临近结束时如此喊话道。
宇航员克里斯·威廉姆斯在国际空间站机械臂维修工作间隙，于地球上空260英里处摆出“大力士”姿势。
5月27日，休斯顿约翰逊航天中心的飞行控制人员发现，这台加拿大制造的机械臂的七个关节中有一个电流消耗超出预期，且无法正常移动。
在对遥测数据进行详细分析后，NASA管理层和提供空间站机械臂的加拿大航天局专家得出结论：该关节已失效，需要用备用件更换——空间站外部储物平台上共搭载了两个这类备用件。
“像 Canadarm2 这样的系统从设计之初就考虑了组件可更换性，维修也是计划内的一环，”国际空间站运营与整合主管比尔·斯佩奇说道，“此次维修也不例外。”
在 Quest 气闸舱内，第五次进行太空行走的宇航员杰西卡·梅尔和第二次执行太空行走的队友克里斯·威廉姆斯于美国东部时间上午8:20将宇航服切换至电池供电模式，正式开启了本年度第三次国际空间站太空行走，同时也是第280次国际空间站太空行走任务。
在储物平台附近安装好脚束缚装置并将备用关节定位到位后，威廉姆斯和梅尔卸下了机械臂的“手”——也就是捕获末端执行器（简称LEE），以及另外两个完好的关节。
威廉姆斯将失效的腕部关节移至临时存放点，以便他和杰西卡·梅尔安装替换件。
这个重达900磅的组件被临时安装在附近的架子上，为拆除第五号关节——也就是那个失效的200磅重腕部关节——扫清了障碍。替换关节在太空行走开始4.5小时后顺利安装完成。
“我们将拆除第五号失效关节，用备用关节替换，待其装回机械臂后，我们最后一项主要任务就是将临时存放的捕获末端执行器组件重新装回机械臂，确保太空行走结束时机械臂完全组装完毕，”飞行指挥菲奥娜·安特科维亚克说道。
太空行走开始5.5小时后，威廉姆斯和梅尔按计划重新安装了捕获末端执行器组件。不久后，飞行控制人员为机械臂通电，并确认新安装关节的电气连接正常。
“今天我们已收到可靠确认……Canadarm2 的电力和数据传输双链路均运行正常，”NASA解说员桑德拉·琼斯说道，“今天的腕部手术取得了成功。”
与此同时，威廉姆斯和梅尔收起工具，返回气闸舱，结束此次太空行走任务。
威廉姆斯还将失效关节带回了气闸舱，最终将其送回地球进行维修。完成维修后，该翻新关节和另一个备用关节将被重新发射至空间站，以备未来不时之需。
机械臂对空间站的正常运营至关重要。它可用于捕获诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司的天鹅座货运飞船，将其拉至对接泊位，并在维修作业中搬运其他组件和太空行走人员。
NASA计划于2030年底前退役国际空间站，但斯佩奇表示，该机构将持续维护机械臂，因为它对国际空间站运营至关重要。
“我们绝不会说‘好了，我们不再维修机械臂了’，”他说道，“总体而言，机械臂是空间站运营的关键，在其服役至寿命末期的全过程中，我们都将持续对其进行维护。”
Spacewalkers successfully replace broken “wrist” joint in space station’s robot arm
June 30, 2026 / 5:19 PM EDT / CBS News
Two NASA astronauts floating outside the International Space Station carried out a bit of orbital surgery Tuesday, successfully replacing a broken 200-pound “wrist” joint near the end of the lab’s 58-foot-long robot arm.
“That is a good install, you guys. I know that was tough. Wonderful work,” Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons called up from mission control toward the end of the seven-hour, 20-minute excursion.
Astronaut Chris Williams shows a “strong man” pose 260 miles above Earth during a break in work to repair the International Space Station’s robot arm. NASA
On May 27, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston noticed one of the Canadian-built arm’s seven joints was drawing more current than expected and not moving properly.
After a detailed review of telemetry, NASA managers and experts with the Canadian Space Agency, which supplied the station arm, concluded the joint had failed and needed to be replaced with a spare, one of two mounted on an external stowage platform.
“Systems like Canadarm2 were designed from the beginning with replaceable components and were planned with maintenance in mind,” ISS operations and integration manager Bill Spetch said. “This is no exception.”
Floating in the Quest airlock, astronaut Jessica Meir, making her fifth spacewalk, and crewmate Chris Williams, making his second, switched their spacesuits to battery power at 8:20 a.m. ET, officially kicking off the year’s third ISS spacewalk and the 280th overall.
After setting up foot restraints near the stowage platform and positioning the spare joint for installation, Williams and Meir detached the arm’s “hand,” known as the latching end effector or LEE, along with two other healthy joints.
Williams moves the failed wrist joint to a temporary storage location while he and Jessica Meir work to install a replacement. NASA
The 900-pound assembly was temporarily mounted on a nearby shelf, clearing the way for the removal of joint No. 5, the 200-pound wrist joint that failed. The replacement joint was successfully installed four and a half hours into the spacewalk.
“We’ll remove the failed joint five, replace it with the spare joint and then once that’s back on the arm, our last major task will be to get that LEE cluster that we temporarily stowed and put it back onto the robotic arm so that we have a fully assembled arm at the end of the spacewalk,” flight director Fiona Antkowiak said.
Five and a half hours after beginning the spacewalk, Williams and Meir were able to reattach the LEE cluster as planned. Shortly after, flight controllers powered up the arm and verified good electrical connections through the newly installed joint.
“Today we did hear good confirmation that … Canadarm2 has two good strings of power and data to the arm,” NASA commentator Sandra Jones said. “So today’s wrist surgery was successful.”
Williams and Meir, meanwhile, collected their tools and headed back to the airlock to close out the spacewalk.
Williams also brought the failed joint back into the airlock so it can eventually be returned to Earth for repairs. Once that work is complete, the refurbished joint and one other will be relaunched to the space station for future use as needed.
The robot arm is critical to normal station operations. It is used to capture Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo ships, pulling them in for berthing while moving other components — and spacewalkers — from point to point during maintenance operations.
NASA plans to retire the space station by the end of 2030, but Spetch said the agency will continue to maintain the arm throughout because it is vital to ISS operations.
“There’s not a time where we say hey, we’re just done repairing the arm,” he said. “Overall, the arm is critical for station operations and continued maintenance of it throughout to the end of life.”
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