Meir, Koch Complete Battery Swaps to Upgrade Station Power Systems

Expedition 61 flight engineers Jessica Meir and Christina Koch concluded their third spacewalk together at 1:33 p.m. EST (1833 GMT) on Monday (Jan. 20). During the 6 hour and 58-minute extravehicular activity (EVA), the two NASA astronauts successfully completed the battery upgrade for one channel on one pair of the International Space Station's solar arrays.

Monday's work included removing the last two nickel-hydrogen batteries from an area of the station's backbone near the port (or left side) solar array and moving them to an external platform. The batteries will be stored there until they can be disposed of with the next Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) cargo spacecraft later this year.

Meir and Koch also installed the sixth and final new lithium-ion battery, which flight controllers verified as powering up successfully to provide an improved and more efficient capacity for station operations.

The spacewalkers concluded their work by paying tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Meir said he was a personal hero and looking down on planet Earth reminded her of his words: "We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now." Koch noted how much is owed to those who worked for civil rights and inclusion and "paved the way for not only us, but so many who have a dream."

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.

Monday'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.