NASA TV Broadcasts Spacewalk on Sunday

From left, NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams are pictured during a spacewalk in September of 2016 performing solar array maintenance.
From left, NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams are pictured during a spacewalk in September of 2016 performing solar array maintenance.

NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover are scheduled to exit the International Space Station’s Quest airlock Sunday for a spacewalk to begin assembling and installing modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades.

The pair will set their spacesuits to battery power about 6 a.m. EST tomorrow, signifying the start of their spacewalk, which is expected to last about six and a half hours. NASA will begin its live coverage on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website at 4:30 a.m.

The current solar arrays are functioning well but have begun to show signs of degradation, as expected, as they were designed for a 15-year service life. The first pair of solar arrays were deployed in December 2000 and have been powering the station for more than 20 years. Later this year, the new solar arrays will be positioned in front of six of the current arrays, ultimately increasing the station’s total available power from 160 kilowatts to up to 215 kilowatts.

This will be the 235th spacewalk in support of space station assembly. Rubins will be designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1) and wear a spacesuit bearing red stripes. Glover will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2), wearing a suit with no stripes.

Rubins arrived at the space station Oct. 14, 2020, aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and Glover arrived at the space station in November as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission. This will be the third career spacewalk for each.

Watch a video providing an overview of the spacewalk and learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.



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