Two NASA astronauts, Chris Cassidy the station commander of Expedition 63 and Bob Behnken the Flight Engineer gear up for the spacewalk to continue replacing batteries that store and distribute power collected from the solar arrays. The two astronauts would leave the orbital lab on June 26 and July 1.
They will work on the outer portion of the truss structure or the Starboard-6 truss disconnecting and removing the old nickel batteries. New Lithium-ion batteries will be installed in their place and powered up by mission controllers on the ground. This complex repair jobs have been taking place on both the starboard and port sides of the station’s truss structure. The battery replacement work is the culmination of the power upgrade spacewalks that began in January 2017.
The solar arrays slowly rotate around the truss structure and track the Sun but are locked into place during the spacewalks.
Flight Engineers Dough Hurley and Ivan Vagner teamed up and are getting the jetpacks ready for the spacewalkers would want in an unlikely event of getting detached from the station.
The spacewalk will begin at 7:35 am EDT and will last for 7 long hours. This will be a virtual event with no media present because of the safety restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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References: NASA
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