NASA astronauts have conducted the second spacewalk of this year

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It took a total of five hours and 20 minutes

Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr. conducted a spacewalk on Monday, January 31 to finish battery upgrades and also installed high definition cameras outside the International Space Station.

The astronauts took longer than expected to commence the spacewalk, and started at 7:56 am ET, they were able to get their tasks done at a much quicker rate and even managed some “get-ahead” items that had been set aside for future spacewalks.

The spacewalk wound up at 1:16 pm ET and took a total of five hours and 20 minutes.

Spacewalk history

Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr. conducted their first spacewalk together on Wednesday, January 27
NASA

The duo had completed two spacewalks with just a few days in between. This was the second spacewalk for Glover has just had his first spaceflight from the station a few months ago.

Meanwhile, Hopkins has completed four spacewalks including this one. He had finished two spacewalks during his first six-month stay on the space station from September 2013 to March 2014.

This had been the 234th spacewalk inorder to support the space station’s assembly, maintenance and upgrades.

The astronauts’ jobs

Two ISS astronauts conduct year’s second spacewalk
NASA

The astronauts first installed the final lithium-ion battery adapter plate and later connected it to the battery, which had already been installed mechanically via robots before the spacewalk. The nickel-hydrogen batteries that they had replaced have been working since January 2017.

The batteries they have installed now are more energy efficient and also provide better power capacity to the space station. The astronauts the  moved to other side of the station to do more upgrades. The standard camera that they were using on the Destiny laboratory was replaced with a high-definition one and also replaced the camera and light assembly components for the Japanese robotic arm’s camera system.

Aside from Hopkins and Glover, NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi was also part of the space flight.

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