NASA has efficiently accomplished its second spacewalk of the 12 months on the Worldwide House Station (ISS).
NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Japan’s Koichi Wakata of NASA counterpart JAXA spent 6 hours and 41 minutes exterior the orbital outpost on Thursday earlier than returning inside at 2:26 p.m. ET.
The pair have been able to complete their main task of ending the development of a mounting platform for a rollout photo voltaic array, they usually additionally put in cables for the arrays. The duties are a part of ongoing work to improve the station’s energy provide.
4 arrays have been put in up to now, and two extra shall be fastened to the put in platforms throughout future spacewalks.
As typical, NASA livestreamed your complete spacewalk utilizing cameras fastened to the astronauts’ helmets and in addition to the station itself. Stay audio feeds from the astronauts was additionally supplied, together with a commentary from Mission Management that defined what the pair have been doing. NASA later shared a number of clips on social media.
Right here we see Nicole Mann rising from the station to start the spacewalk:
This clip exhibits Mann and Wakata engaged on the set up of the mounting platform:
Right here’s a transparent shot of each astronauts at work through the spacewalk:
This clip provides a wonderful view of Earth some 250 miles under:
Wakata later tweeted: “It was an amazing day of spacewalk! Honor to work with your complete EVA staff that put collectively the wonderful ops plan and executed it. Thanks!”
This was the 259th spacewalk in assist of area station meeting, upgrades, and upkeep for the reason that station began working greater than twenty years in the past.
Mann and Wakata arrived on the ISS in October as a part of SpaceX’s Crew-5. This was solely their second spacewalk, with each embarking on their first journey exterior the station on January 20. The present area mission is the fifth for Wakata and the primary for Mann, who with October’s flight grew to become the primary Native American girl to achieve orbit.
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