Two Astronauts Begin Spacewalk for Battery and Camera Upgrades
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover have begun their spacewalk to finish a four-year effort to upgrade the International Space Station’s power system. They will install a final lithium-ion battery adapter plate on the port 4 (P4) truss and upgrade several external cameras.
The spacewalkers switched their spacesuits to battery power at 7:56 a.m. EST to begin the spacewalk, which is expected to last about six and a half hours.
Watch the spacewalk on NASA TV and on the agency’s website.
Eight years of research and development and 14 spacewalks to replace aging batteries are part of an overall electrical system upgrade to continue research after 20 years of continuous human presence aboard the International Space Station. The batteries store power generated by the station’s solar arrays to provide power to the microgravity laboratory when the station is not in sunlight as it circles Earth during orbital night.
Hopkins is extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1), wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, and using helmet camera #18. Glover is extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2), wearing the spacesuit with no stripes and helmet camera #20.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
Mark Garcia
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