The NASA astronauts have spent more than seven hours in space during the first of 10 planned spacewalks. The spacewalk took place on Sunday, October 6, and was broadcast live over the internet. NASA’s two astronauts were tasked with replacing old batteries on the International Space Station’s (ISS’) port truss.
The batteries store power gathered by the space station’s solar arrays for when the orbital lab passes into the Earth’s shadow.
The spacewalk began around 12.39pm BST (7.39am EDT) on Sunday before wrapping up around 7.40pm BST (2.40pm EDT).
NASA’s Mark Garcia said: “Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan of NASA concluded their spacewalk at 2.40pm EDT.
“During the seven-hour and one minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts began the replacement of nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries on the far end of the station’s port truss.
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“Astronauts also were able to accomplish get-ahead tasks, including the removal of an additional nickel-hydrogen battery, originally scheduled for the second spacewalk.”
Mrs Koch and Mr Morgan will venture out into the vacuum of space once more this week to continue to battery replacement.
The second spacewalk is pencilled in for Friday, October 11.
Before the month is over, NASA said a total of five spacewalks will complete the mission on October 16, October 21 and October 25.
The new batteries are smaller, lighter and have an improved power capacity.
After the batteries are replaced, the astronauts will perform another five repair missions.
Space station crew members have conducted 219 spacewalks
Mark Garcia, NASA
The second batch of spacewalks will focus on the space station’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer – an instrument detecting cosmic rays for evidence of dark matter.
Although NASA is yet to schedule the spacewalks, they are likely to unfold throughout November.
NASA said: “Space station crew members have conducted 219 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory.
“Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 57 days 6 hours and 27 minutes working outside the station.”
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How to watch NASA’s spacewalks live online and on TV
All of NASA’s spacewalks are broadcast live online and over terrestrial television in the US.
NASA Television, or NASA TV, provides free and around-the-clock educational broadcasting for everyone to enjoy.
In the US, you can Watch NASA’s 4K Ultra HD broadcasts through satellite and terrestrial connections.
Click here to see NASA’s guide on connecting your TV set.
Alternatively, you can watch NASA’s broadcasts live over the internet.
Simply visit the official NASA TV webpage where you will find the lifestream and TV schedule of NASA’s programming.
Alternatively, the NASA TV stream is available to watch on YouTube and streaming platform UStream.
You can also watch a live broadcast from the ISS by clicking here.
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