Third Spacewalk Featuring Meir and Koch Upgrades Power Systems
On Jan. 20, Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Christina Koch of NASA concluded their third spacewalk together. During the six hour and 58-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts successfully completed the battery upgrade for one channel on one pair of the International Space Station’s solar arrays.
The spacewalking duo removed the last two nickel-hydrogen batteries from this area of the station’s backbone near the port solar array and moved them to an external platform. The batteries will be stored there until they can be disposed of in the next Japanese HTV cargo spacecraft after it delivers tons of supplies to the space station later this year. Meir and Koch also installed the sixth and final new lithium-ion battery, and ground controllers verified the new batteries powered up successfully to provide an improved and more efficient power capacity for station operations.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is outfitted with pistol grip tools and attached to an articulating portable foot restraint during a spacewalk to finalize upgrading power systems on the International Space Station's Port-6 truss structure. Image Credit: NASA
This was the second spacewalk outside the station in 2020. Space station crew members have now conducted 226 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have spent a total of 59 days, 6 hours, and 10 minutes working outside the station. It is the third time all spacewalkers have been women, and the 45th spacewalk to include women.
Today’s spacewalk was the third for Meir, who now has spent
a total of 21 hours and 44 minutes spacewalking, and the sixth for Koch for a
total of 42 hours and 15 minutes. Koch is third place behind Peggy Whitson and
Suni Williams for cumulative time by a female spacewalker and 21st on the
all-time spacewalk list for aggregate time.
NEXT UP: Saturday,
Jan. 25
4:30 a.m. CST: Coverage of Expedition 61
U.S. spacewalk #64 to complete repairs to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and space station Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) will finish installing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer’s (AMS) new cooling apparatus and lines and verify they are ready for use. Morgan and Parmitano began that work during three spacewalks in November and December 2019.
The excursion with Morgan and Parmitano is set to begin at 5:50 a.m. on NASA TV and the agency’s website. Set your alarm and watch it unfold live!
Follow the latest news on the space station at the blog.
On Dec. 2, 2019, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano rides on the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm attached to an articulating portable foot restraint during the third spacewalk to upgrade the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer's thermal pump system. Image Credit: NASA
