Expedition 50 astronauts will have 2 spacewalks outside the International Space Station on January 6 and January 13, 2017

Expedition 50 astronauts will have 2 spacewalks outside the International Space Station on January 6 and January 13, 2017

NASA
Expedition 50 astronauts are in final preparations for the first of two power maintenance spacewalks that starts Friday at 7 a.m. EST.

Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson will stow and replace power gear during the first 6.5 hour spacewalk. The duo will work near the solar arrays on the starboard truss segment.

The two spacewalkers will be assisted by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy from inside the International Space Station. Pesquet will conduct the second spacewalk Jan. 13 with Kimbrough to wrap up the battery installation work. The majority of the complex power upgrade work was done by controllers on the ground remotely using the Canadarm2 robotic arm and hand.

The three cosmonauts worked on an array of station maintenance tasks and advanced space experiments. Cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov researched how blood flow and respiration is affected by living in space. Novitskiy explored the station’s magnetic field and how it affects navigation.
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Watch Live: NASA Expedition 50 astronauts – Friday, January 6, 2017 at 7 a.m. EST.
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Video: NASA Previews Spacewalks to Upgrade ISS Power System
On Jan. 4, NASA held a press briefing at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to preview a pair of planned spacewalks to perform a complex upgrade to the International Space Station’s power system. NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson will conduct the spacewalk on Jan. 6. The second spacewalk, on Jan. 13, will be performed by Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency). Working on the right side truss of the space station, the crew members will install adapter plates and hook up electrical connections for six new lithium-ion batteries that were delivered to the station in December.

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