Astronauts conclude spacewalkNASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover began their spacewalk on Sunday (Feb. 28) at 6:12 a.m. EST (1012 GMT) and concluded at 1:16 p.m. EST (1816 GMT), after 7 hours and 4 minutes. The two spacewalkers began work to install modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades.
The duo worked near the farthest set of existing solar arrays on the International Space Station's left (port) side, known as P6. Glover built a bracket structure and worked with Rubins to attach the bracket and support struts to the mast canister, the base, of one of the P6 solar arrays, known as 2B.
One of the bolts did not fully engage on the first attempt, so Rubins used a power drill to back it out and reseat it, then used a ratchet wrench to tighten the bolt, reaching a safe configuration. The bolt likely will need to be secured further before installing one of the new solar arrays that will be delivered to the space station later this year aboard SpaceX CRS-22 commercial resupply services mission.
Rubins and Glover then moved to begin identical assembly work for the bracket for the second of the P6 solar array pair, known as 4B. They completed the construction of upper support hardware and secured it to the space station's exterior structure until work can be completed on the next spacewalk on Friday, March 5.
This was the third career spacewalk for both Rubins and Glover. Rubins has now spent a total of 19 hours and 50 minutes spacewalking. Glover now has spent a total of 19 hours and 20 minutes spacewalking.
Space station crew members have conducted 235 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 61 days, 14 hours, and 11 minutes working outside the station.
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