by NASA has successfully completed its second spacewalk of the year on the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Japan’s Koichi Wakata of NASA’s JAXA counterpart spent 6 hours and 41 minutes outside the orbital outpost on Thursday before returning inside at 2:26 p.m. ET.
The two were able to complete their main task of completing the construction of a mounting platform for a rollout solar array, and they also laid cables for the arrays. The work is part of ongoing work to modernize the station’s power supply.
Four arrays have been installed so far, and two more will be attached to the installed platforms during future spacewalks.
As usual, NASA broadcast the entire spacewalk using cameras attached to the astronauts’ helmets and also to the station itself. Live audio feeds from the astronauts were also provided, along with commentary from Mission Control explaining what the pair were doing. NASA later shared several clips on social media.
Here we see Nicole Mann coming out of the station to start the spacewalk:
This clip shows Mann and Wakata installing the mounting platform:
Here’s a clear shot of the two astronauts at work during the spacewalk:
This clip offers a fabulous view of Earth about 250 miles down:
Wakata later tweeted, “It was a great spacewalk day! Honor to work with the entire EVA team who put together and executed the excellent operational plan. Thank you very much!”
This was the 259th spacewalk in support of the assembly, upgrade and maintenance of the space station since the station began operations more than two decades ago.
Mann and Wakata arrived on the ISS in October as part of SpaceX’s Crew-5. This was only their second spacewalk, and both embarked on their first off-station adventure on January 20. The current space mission is Wakata’s fifth and Mann’s first, making October’s flight the first Native American woman to reach orbit.
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