posted 04-08-2019 04:52 AM               

ISS Expedition 59: U.S. Spacewalk 54

Expedition 59 Flight Engineers Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency are scheduled to conduct another spacewalk Monday, April 8, to establish a redundant path of power to the Canadian-built robotic arm, known as Canadarm2, and install cables to provide for more expansive wireless communications coverage outside the orbital complex, as well as for enhanced hardwired computer network capability.

The spacewalk is set to start at 8:05 a.m. EDT (1205 GMT).

This will be the 216th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance. McClain will be designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1), wearing the suit with red stripes. Saint-Jacques will be designated extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2), wearing the suit with no stripes.

This is the third spacewalk in under a month on the space station. The first two spacewalks installed powerful lithium-ion batteries for one pair of the station's solar arrays. On March 22, the first spacewalk in the series was completed by McClain and fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague. On March 29, the second spacewalk was completed by Hague and NASA astronaut Christina Koch.

posted 04-08-2019 07:16 PM               

Astronauts wrap up power upgrades spacewalk

Expedition 59 flight engineers Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency concluded their spacewalk on Monday (April 8) at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT).

During the 6 hour, 29 minute spacewalk, the two astronauts successfully established a redundant path of power to the Canadian-built robotic arm, known as Canadarm2, and installed cables to provide for more expansive wireless communications coverage outside the orbital complex, as well as for enhanced hardwired computer network capability.

The duo also relocated an adapter plate from the first spacewalk in preparation for future battery upgrade operations.

Saint-Jacques ran into an issue installing a fitting for a commercial payload platform outside the European Columbus module and took photos to assist in the troubleshooting and replanning for a future spacewalk.

Space station crew members have conducted 216 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station, spending a total of 56 days, 10 hours and 53 minutes working outside of the orbiting laboratory.