Spacewalk season two for Shane and Thomas

The spacewalks, on Wednesday 16 June and Sunday 20 June, will see the duo add new panels to the large Space Station solar array.

Both spacewalks can be followed live from 12:30 CEST (10:30 GMT) on both days with ESA web television broadcasting the NASA coverage. On Sunday ESA web television will broadcast NASA’s coverage on channel one, with French commentary on channel two. Spacewalking action is set to start around 14:00 CEST (12:00 GMT) when the pair is scheduled to exit the Quest airlock to start their work outside.

Suits and solar panels

As EV1, Thomas will wear a spacesuit with red stripes. Shane, as EV2, will wear a spacesuit with no stripes.

The duo will be aided by NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Mark Vande Hei inside the Space Station who will help them in and out of their spacesuits, and operate the  17-m-long robotic arm that will move Thomas and Shane to their worksites.

During these spacewalks, Thomas and Shane will install the first two of six new solar arrays that will unfurl in space. The panels, dubbed ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs) arrived at the Station on the SpaceX CRS-22 supply mission, and were moved into position by robotic arm on 10 June.

The current solar arrays work well but are reaching the end of their 15-year lifespan.

The first pair of the Space Station’s original solar arrays have been in use since 2000 and have been powering the station for more than 20 years. The new solar arrays will not replace the current ones, but will be positioned in front of six of the current arrays, increasing the Station’s total available power from 160 kilowatts to a maximum of 215 kilowatts.

The same solar array design will be used to power elements of the lunar Gateway – a new Space Station in cislunar orbit to be launched by International Space Station partners.

A dependable duo

Shane and Thomas are experienced spacewalkers and have already conducted two spacewalks together.

Spacewalk season one was in 2017 during Thomas’s Proxima mission when they upgraded the Space Station’s batteries, lubricated the Candarm-2 and prepared the space-facing docking port on Node-2 for the International Docking Adpater-3 – where the SpaceX Cargo Dragon that brought up the new solar arrays is docked to right now.

Each of their upcoming spacewalks is expected to last up to seven hours. Follow the action live on ESA Web TV and @esaspaceflight on Twitter for regular updates throughout.