It is Glover’s second spacewalk, who has been a few months into his first spaceflight on the station.
«What a beautiful sight,» Glover said after he began his space walk on Wednesday.
This will be the fourth spacewalk for Hopkins, who previously completed two spacewalks during his first six-month stay on the space station from September 2013 to March 2014.
This is Spacewalk No. 234 to support the assembly, maintenance, and upgrade of the space station.
Hopkins will wear the spacesuit with red stripes as Crew Member 1 and Glover will wear the spacesuit without stripes as one of Crew 2.
Astronauts will install a final lithium-ion battery adapter board on Monday. They will connect it to the battery installed automatically before going into space. This installation concludes work to complete the replacement of old nickel-hydrogen batteries outside the plant that began in January 2017.
Glover and Hopkins will then move to the other side of the station to focus on other promotions. Their work includes replacing the standard outdoor camera with a new high-resolution camera at Destiny Lab, and replacing the camera and light components needed for the Japanese robotic arm camera system, located outside the kibo unit. They will also route some Ethernet cables.
Robins has the mission to operate a robotic arm from inside the space station to assist astronauts while they are working outside.
There are more spacewalks planned for the crew near the end of February and the beginning of March.
Glover and Rubins will collaborate on the third round of spacewalks to set up the station’s power system to install new solar arrays, which will increase the station’s power supply.
Robins and Noguchi will conduct a fourth spacewalk to continue upgrades to the space station.
During these long walks in space, astronauts go through alternating cycles of day and night every 45 minutes, working against hot and bright sunlight as well as cool darkness in space. This happens because the space station is orbiting Earth at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour.
While astronauts do not feel the direct effects of extreme cold and heat, there is potential for chills to occur, so there are heaters installed in the astronaut’s gloves to keep their hands warm, Vincent Lacourt, NASA’s spaceflight director, told Spacewalk on February 1.
