Two astronauts were to walk outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, but adebris notification forced the postponement.
The risk of debris from a Russian anti-satellite missile test posing a slight elevated risk to the astronauts was the reason why they were not going to go outside the space station to replace the failed antenna.
The spacewalk was called off about five hours before it was to start.
The space station had a debris notification. The space agency decided to delay the spacewalk due to the lack of time to assess the risk to the astronauts.
It was not clear if the debris was related to the Russian missile test or if it came close to the space station.
The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk was scheduled to begin at 7.10 pm, but was delayed due to weather.
They wanted to replace a faulty S-band radio communications antenna with a new one outside the space station.
The antenna lost its ability to send signals. Mission managers decided to install a new antenna to make sure there was a back-up.
The European Space Agency's Matthias Maurer and Raja Chari were going to help Marshburn with his work on the end of the robotic arm.
Four people arrived at the space station on November 11 in a capsule launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
All seven crew members took shelter in their docked spaceships to allow for a quick escape after Russia conducted an anti-satellite missile test without warning.
The astronauts talk about the Russian test causing space debris.
The cloud of debris has dissipated according to Dana Weigel, deputy manager for the International Space Station. The background risk to the space station as a whole was calculated by Nasa to be slightly elevated, and the risk of spacewalkers' suits being punctured was higher than before the missile test.
She said that the risk of spacewalkers falling victim to larger fragments around the station had not yet been quantified, but that the fluctuations seen in the natural environment had not changed.
