Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station will be conducting a spacewalk on Sunday, four days after they completed their last one.
During the upcoming spacewalk, NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency will continue work on installing a new solar array apparatus as part of ongoing upgrade work to the space station’s power system.
NASA said the two spacewalkers and their assistants, NASA flight engineers Megan McArthur and Mark Vande Hei, spent part of Thursday checking spacesuit components, organizing spacewalk tools, and speaking with Mission Control about the approaching extravehicular activity, as spacewalks are officially known.
About three hours into Wednesday’s spacewalk, Kimbrough had to return to the airlock after two issues emerged with his spacesuit. Once these were addressed, he was able to resume his work alongside Pesquet. Following the conclusion of the spacewalk, the American astronaut touched on the incident in a tweet, which included a set of photos captured during Wednesday’s work.
Space is hard. Yesterday on our spacewalk, we encountered several issues that the entire team worked through incredibly well. @Thom_astro took these photos and led us beautifully through a very challenging day. pic.twitter.com/GMKBjHx2cT
— Shane Kimbrough (@astro_kimbrough) June 17, 2021
Sunday’s spacewalk will be the eighth for Kimbrough and the fourth for Pesquet, and the fourth they’ve performed together following two other EVAs in 2017.
How to watch
Coverage of the next spacewalk will start at 6:30 a.m. ET (3:30 a.m. PT) on Sunday, June 20.
The livestream will show the astronauts’ final preparations before they exit the space station at around 8 a.m. ET (5 a.m. PT). The spacewalk is expected to last between six and seven hours.
You can watch the livestream by hitting the play button on the video player embedded at the top of this page. NASA’s website will carry the same livestream.
Real-time footage will be streamed from an array of cameras, some attached to the astronauts themselves. The broadcast also will include a live commentary explaining what’s happening every step of the way. You’ll also be able to hear the audio feed between the astronauts and Mission Control.
In the meantime, we recommend you take a moment to check out these jaw-dropping images captured during spacewalks from over the years.
