Skip to main content

NASA’s next spacewalk is on Sunday. Here’s how to watch

NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV

Two astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) are gearing up for a spacewalk on Sunday, February 28. And you can watch it live online.

NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover will step outside the orbiting outpost 250 miles above Earth to perform maintenance work that’s expected to take around six-and-a-half hours to complete.

Specifically, Rubins and Glover will start work on assembling and installing modification kits needed for upcoming solar array upgrades.

“The current solar arrays are functioning well, but have begun to show signs of degradation, as expected, as they were designed for a 15-year service life,” NASA said. “The first pair of solar arrays were deployed in December 2000 and have been powering the station for more than 20 years. Later this year, the new solar arrays will be positioned in front of six of the current arrays, increasing the station’s total available power from 160 kilowatts to up to 215 kilowatts.”

The pair will be supported by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who will monitor the work and provide assistance from inside the station.

Sunday’s spacewalk, or “extravehicular activity” as they’re officially known, will be the 235th in the history of station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades. It will be the third spacewalk for both Rubins and Glover. Rubins participated in two others during another ISS mission in 2016, while Glover took his first step outside the space station just a month ago with fellow ISS crew member Mike Hopkins, following up shortly after with a second walk, also with Hopkins. Watch Glover jettisoning a piece of decommissioned equipment during his debut outing.

How to watch

You can watch the spacewalk on the player embedded at the top of this page, or by heading to NASA’s Live TV channel. Coverage will be broadcast from a variety of cameras, some of them fixed in place, and others attached to the astronauts themselves. Audio feeds are also provided.

Live coverage will begin at 1:30 a.m. PT, with the two astronauts scheduled to exit the station’s Quest airlock at about 3 a.m. PT.  If that’s a bit early for you, then drop by a little later as the spacewalk is likely to continue until about 9:30 a.m. PT.

So you know who’s who, Rubins will be wearing red stripes on her spacesuit as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1), while Glover will be without stripes as extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2).

Spacewalks have the potential to produce some pretty awesome imagery as the astronauts carry out their work. Check out this impressive collection of photographs snapped during various expeditions over the years.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Watch NASA’s trailer for Friday’s crewed launch to the ISS
SpaceX's Crew-7 astronauts.

NASA and SpaceX are pretty much ready for Friday’s launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station.

The space agency posted a video on Monday as part of the build-up for Friday’s launch. You can watch it below.

Read more
How to watch NASA and SpaceX launch Crew-7 to the space station
SpaceX's Crew-7 astronauts.

NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV

NASA and SpaceX are making final preparations for the Crew-7 flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

Read more
NASA reveals new date for Crew-7 mission to space station
The International Space Station pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly-around of the orbiting lab.

The four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission inside SpaceX Hangar X at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. From left to right: Konstantin Borisov, Andreas Mogensen, Jasmin Moghbeli, and Satoshi Furukawa. SpaceX

UPDATE: NASA had moved the targeted launch date from August 17 to August 21. But it's now targeting Friday, August 25. This article has been updated to reflect the change.

Read more