NASA: Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins begin ISS spacewalk
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr are now hard at work during 2021’s second spacewalk. The pair are busy completing battery upgrades and the installation of HD cameras outside of the space station in orbit 250 miles (400km) above our planet.
The second spacewalk for the pair in as many days kicked-off at 12.56pm GMT (7.56am ET) and ISS enthusiasts can watch every last detail via free live stream from NASA’s website.
Do not worry if you have missed the start, as the spacewalk is anticipated to last for six and a half hours.
The International Space Station Twitter account announced the mission commenced successfully.
The post said: “The crew closed the hatch to the crew lock portion of the Quest Airlock with @Astro_Illini and @AstroVicGlover inside.”
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This was followed 30 minutes later with the update: “Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr set their spacesuits to battery power at 7.56am ET to begin today’s spacewalk to finish upgrades to the station power system and install new cameras.”
The most recent post from the ISS’s officials Twitter account reads: “The space-walkers can be identified by the stripes on their spacesuits.
“Mike Hopkins is wearing the spacesuit with red stripes and Victor Glover Jr has no stripes.”
Monday’s mission is actually the second such spacewalk experience for Mr Glover.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/21X5lGlDOfg
The NASA astronaut is only a few months into his first spaceflight on the orbiting space lab.
This will be the fourth spacewalk for Mr Hopkins, who previously completed two spacewalks during his first six-month stay on the space station between September 2013 to March 2014.
Today’s mission marks the 234th spacewalk in total, supporting the ISS’s ever-evolving assembly, maintenance and vital upgrades.
The space-engineers’ primary objective involves installing the final lithium-ion battery adapter plate.
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They will then connect the adapter to a battery all installed by a robot before this spacewalk started.
The is the final stage of work that began in January 2017 to complete the overhaul of the ISS’ ageing nickel-hydrogen batteries.
The astronauts will then move to the space stations’s opposite side in order to concentrate on other important upgrades.
This work includes replacing an external standard camera with a new high-definition camera on the Destiny laboratory. This will also involve replacing components used by a Japanese robotic arm’s camera system, found the Kibo module’s exterior.
To wrap-up their epic mission, they will also route some ethernet cables.
The pair were joined by NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi when they were ferried to the ISS last last year aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience.
They joined NASA’s Kate Rubins and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who were already on the station after arriving in October.
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