Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk to replace aging solar array batteries. This will be the third all-female spacewalk in NASA history.
The spacewalk is scheduled for 6:50 a.m. on Monday ET. Coverage begins at 5:30 a.m. ET.
How to watch the third all-female spacewalk:
- What: NASA’s third all-female spacewalk
- Date: January 20, 2020
- Time: 6:50 a.m. ET
- Location: International Space Station
- Online stream: Watch in the player above and on your mobile or streaming device
It took NASA more than 50 years to stage its first all-female spacewalk last October. It took three more months before the second on January 15, but just five days more before the third, a planned six-and-a-half hour excursion Monday to finish installing a fresh set of solar array batteries aboard the International Space Station.
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Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, floating in the station’s Quest airlock, planned to switch their spacesuits to battery power around 6:50 a.m. EST to officially kick off their third spacewalk together, the 226th devoted to station assembly and maintenance.
For identification, Meir, call sign EV-1, will be wearing a suit with red stripes and using helmet camera number 11. Koch, EV-2, will be using an unmarked suit and helmet cam 18.
Wrapping up a record 328-day stay aboard the station, Koch participated in five earlier spacewalks, logging 35 hours and 17 minutes, since arriving aboard the lab last March. Meir’s mark stands at 14 hours and 46 minutes through two outings, both with Koch.
NASA is in the process of replacing 48 older-generation nickel-hydrogen batteries in the station’s solar power system with 24 more powerful lithium-ion units, along with circuit-completing “adapter plates” to fill in for batteries that were removed but not replaced.
During spacewalks in 2017 and 2018, astronauts replaced half the nickel-hydrogen power packs with 12 lithium ion units. During two spacewalks last October, Koch and Drew Morgan installed three of the left outboard array’s six lithium-ion batteries.
Shortly thereafter, however, engineers discovered one of the three battery charge controllers in that circuit had failed, sidelining one of the new batteries. Koch and Meir then staged the first all-female spacewalk last October 18, removing the failed controller and installing a replacement.
Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space during an outing with a male cosmonaut in 1984, followed later that year by NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan, who joined astronaut David Leestma for a spacewalk during a shuttle mission.
“I think we do recognize it is a historical achievement, it does carry a lot of weight to other people,” Meir said of the first all-female spacewalk. “It really does mean a great deal to share this experience together and hopefully, it does inspire and educate those that will follow us.”
With the battery charge controller in place, Koch and Meir pressed ahead with the battery replacement work January 15, removing four older nickel-hydrogen batteries and installing two new lithium-ion units and one adapter plate.
During Monday’s spacewalk, the women planned to remove the two remaining nickel-hydrogen batteries and install the final lithium-ion battery needed by the station’s left-side outboard set of solar arrays. A final set of six batteries will be installed in the station’s far right-side set of arrays later this year.
With the battery work complete, NASA plans to press ahead with yet another spacewalk January 25, this one with Morgan and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, to complete cooling system repairs of a $2 billion cosmic ray detector. The repairs were carried out during three spacewalks last November and December, but a fourth outing is needed to verify the system is leak free and to re-install insulation.
