Two astronauts are gearing up for a spacewalk at the International Space Station on Wednesday, March 23.
NASA astronaut Raja Chari and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer will spend around six-and-a-half hours installing new thermal system and electronics components on the space station’s U.S. segment.
The two astronauts spent Monday organizing their spacewalk tools and attaching checklists to their spacesuit cuffs, NASA said.
Chari and Maurer arrived at the ISS last November for what is their first space mission. Wednesday’s spacewalk will be the first for Maurer, while Chari will be embarking on his second a week after performing work on the exterior of the station with fellow NASA astronaut Kayla Barron.
What to expect
NASA’s livestream will feature views from a bunch of cameras, some attached to the station and others attached to the astronauts themselves. A live commentary from NASA personnel at Mission Control will explain what it is you’re looking at as the astronauts go about their work.
With the entire spacewalk likely to take between six and seven hours, you can expect to see around nine sunsets and sunrises as the station orbits Earth at speeds of up to 17,000 mph.
How to watch
The spacewalk will start at about 8:50 a.m. ET (5:50 a.m. PT) on Wednesday, March 23, and finish at around 3:20 p.m. ET (12:20 p.m. PT), so feel free to drop by at any point within that time frame.
You can watch it by firing up the video player embedded at the top of this page, or by hitting NASA’s YouTube channel, which will carry the same livestream.
For a taste of what to expect, check out this collection of stunning images of spacewalks from over the years.
