Tomorrow, Thursday, June 15, two astronauts will head out of the confines of the International Space Station (ISS) to perform a spacewalk. They’ll be working on the exterior of the station to install a new solar panel as part of a long-term project to upgrade the station’s power system.
The entire spacewalk will be livestreamed by NASA, so if you’d like to take a look and see how the installation is progressing then we have all the details on how to watch below.
What to expect from the spacewalk
The two astronauts who will be performing the spacewalk are NASA’s Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg. The same pair performed a previous spacewalk last week when they installed a fifth new solar array to the station. Tomorrow’s spacewalk will see them install the sixth and final array, called an IROSA (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array), to the station’s 1B power channel.
Once all six of the arrays have been installed, connected, and tested, they can be used to generate power for the station. The old solar arrays, which form a highly distinctive part of the look of the station seen from the outside, are aging and becoming less efficient over time.
To keep up with the station’s power requirements which are growing due to the number of experiments and equipment on board, the new power system will use both the new and the old arrays in combination to generate power from the sun.
How to watch the spacewalk
The spacewalk will be streamed on NASA’s TV channel, NASA TV. The easiest way to watch that is to either use the video embedded at the top of this page or follow this link which will take you to the YouTube page for the spacewalk livestream.
The spacewalk will begin at 8:55 a.m. ET (5:55 a.m. PT) and will run for around six hours. Coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. ET (4:30 a.m. PT) will information on the planned tasks and expert commentary to explain what the astronauts will be working on. The coverage will run until the spacewalk is completed, which should be around 3 p.m. ET (midday PT).
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