This week, two Russian cosmonauts will be taking a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to prepare a Russian space station module for future missions. NASA will be livestreaming the entire spacewalk, and we have the details below on how you can watch along live at home.
What to expect from the spacewalk
Two Russian cosmonauts will be participating in the spacewalk on Wednesday, January 19, getting the station’s new Prichal module ready to receive spacecraft.
“Expedition 66 Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos will begin the planned seven-hour spacewalk by exiting the Poisk module on the space-facing side of the station’s Russian segment,” NASA writes in a statement. “During the spacewalk, the cosmonauts will install handrails, rendezvous antennas, a television camera, and docking targets on Prichal, which automatically docked to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module in November.”
If you’re planning to watch the spacewalk, you can tell the cosmonauts apart by the spacesuits they will be wearing.
“Shkaplerov will serve as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) and will wear a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes,” NASA writes. “Dubrov will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes as extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2). This will be the third spacewalk in Shkaplerov’s career and the fourth for Dubrov. The first spacewalk at the station in 2022 also will be 246th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.”
How to watch the spacewalk
The spacewalk will be shown on NASA TV on Wednesday, January 19. Coverage begins at 6 a.m. ET (3 a.m. PT), with the spacewalk itself set to begin at 7 a.m. ET (4 a.m. PT). The spacewalk is expected to take 7.5 hours, with coverage running throughout.
You can tune into NASA TV either by heading to NASA’s website or by using the video player embedded near the top of this page.
