Wednesday’s spacewalk began at 7:13 am ET and ended at 1:14 pm ET. It lasted six hours and a minute.
Both astronauts are veteran spacewalkers. This was the eighth adventure out for both Cassidy and Behnken, according to NASA.
These spacewalks are the culmination of a series of power upgrades that began in January 2017 to replace nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries.
This spacewalk, similar to the one that took place last Friday, focused on replacing the batteries in one of the power channels at the starboard starboard end of the station. Because astronauts performed some of the tasks for this spacewalk last week, they also worked on scheduled tasks for subsequent spacewalks, routed power and ethernet cables, and laid the groundwork for future updates to the power system.
These cables will provide better views on future spacewalks, according to NASA.
However, these power system upgrades are nothing. how to replace the batteries in your remote control. New batteries have a mass of 428 pounds each.
For this spacewalk, Cassidy was a member of Crew I and wore a red striped spacesuit, while Behnken served as a crew member II in a non-striped suit. Hurley and Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner helped Cassidy and Behnken put on their space suits. Hurley operated the station’s robotic arm to support astronauts outside the station.
The battery replacements, which will have a 20-year lifespan, will put the station in a much better configuration in the long term, said Kenneth Todd, deputy director of the International Space Station program, during a NASA press conference this week. pass.
Behnken recently discussed the spacewalk, and why it’s important to replace batteries, during a call to CNN Innovation and Space reporter Rachel Crane’s space station.
“When the space station is in the sun, it is collecting energy and needs to store it when it is in the dark,” he said. “And those batteries, as they are recycled over and over again, wear out and need to be replaced. And periodically, maintenance is required.”
Behnken said he was expecting another spacewalk experience.
“I really look forward to the views of Earth when we have a free moment,” he said. “I think every astronaut, when they go out on their first spacewalk, is really focused on trying to do all the activities and do a good job so that they can get a chance to do another one if the opportunity arises.
“But after you’ve made a couple and know what to expect as you go along, it’s important, you know, to take some mental photographs, some mental images, or remember what it was like to be outside.”
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