NASA astronauts to conduct spacewalk today: How to watch
Two NASA astronauts will conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) today. Woody Hoburg and Stephen Bowen will install a roll-out solar array outside the ISS during their trip. The astronauts are a part of the Expedition 69 crew which launched in March this year. This is the second spacewalk for Hoburg and Bowen in less than a week.
Why does this story matter?
Spacewalks are routinely carried out by astronauts aboard the ISS. Astronauts conduct these extra-vehicular activities or EVAs for a couple of reasons which include testing new equipment and carrying out repairs to maintain the orbiting space lab. Since December 1998, there have been 264 spacewalks at the ISS. Today's spacewalk is the eighth one of this year.
Today's spacewalk is expected to last about 6 hours
Hoburg and Bowen will install the roll-out solar array on the opposite side of the ISS's "starboard truss" segment where they installed another roll-out solar array on June 9. These ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs) will boost ISS's power generation capacity. The entire set of solar arrays will increase electricity generation by about 30%, per NASA. Today's spacewalk will last about six hours.
Bowen has logged almost 60.5 hours working in space
The spacewalk on June 9, which also lasted for about six hours, was the first one for Hoburg and the ninth for Bowen. So far, Bowen has logged almost 60.5 hours working in space.
Another spacewalk is scheduled for next week
In about another week, two cosmonauts will carry out another spacewalk. Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, who is the commander of the current Expedition 69, will venture outside the Russian segment of the ISS. The cosmonauts will "spend about seven hours replacing communications and science hardware and photographing the condition of the Zvezda service module," said NASA in a blog post.
Here's how you can watch the broadcast of the spacewalk
You can watch the full broadcast of today's spacewalk via NASA's official YouTube page. Astronauts Hoburg and Bowen will officially commence their second spacewalk together at 6:25pm IST.
