Two NASA astronauts are performing a spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (June 15), and you can watch the ride live.
Woody Hoburgh and Stephen Bowen were scheduled to begin their spacewalk on Thursday at 8:55 a.m. EST (1255 GMT). They will spend about six hours installing an upgraded solar array on the outside of the International Space Station.
You can watch the extravehicular activity (EVA) live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly through the space agency. Coverage started 7:30 a.m. EST (1130 GMT).
Related: International Space Station: Facts About the Orbiting Laboratory
This will be Hoburgh and Bowen’s second spacewalk in less than a week. The duo installed one of the solar arrays, known as iROSAs (short for “ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays”) during a six-hour EVA on June 9.
It was Hoburg’s first-ever spacewalk, and the ninth for Bowen, who has now spent nearly 60.5 hours working in the vacuum of space over his four career spaceflights. Only four astronauts have the full EVA time to their names.
iROSA will augment the plant’s existing energy production system rather than replace it. NASA officials said the full set of new arrays will boost the outpost’s electricity generation by about 30%.
Two Russian cosmonauts are preparing for a spacewalk next week. Sergey Prokopyev, commander of the station’s current Expedition 69, and Dmitry Petlin are set to venture outside the Russian part of the International Space Station on June 22.
During that extravehicular activity (EVA), Prokopyev and Bitline “will spend about seven hours replacing communications and science hardware and imaging the status of the Zvezda Service Module,” according to NASA officials. wrote in Wednesday’s update (June 14).
