On June 26 and July 1, NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken conducted a pair of extended spacewalks outside the International Space Station to replace the orbital science facilitys aging batteries and route cable along the stations spine-like truss structure.

The July 1 spacewalk lasted six hours and one minute. During the excursion, Cassidy and Behnken routed power and Ethernet cables to prepare to equip the station with a new external wireless communications system including an enhanced, high-definition camera and increased helmet camera coverage for future spacewalks.

They also successfully continued work to upgrade batteries that power portions of the stations enormous solar arrays. An ongoing effort since 2017, the battery replacement project is expected to provide improved power capacity for a variety of in-orbit operations. It will be completed during two dedicated spacewalks later in July, which will be scheduled once NASA has assessed the stations upgraded power status.

During the June 26 spacewalk, which lasted six hours and seven minutes, Cassidy and Behnken kicked off the final round of solar array power upgrades. They installed new lithium-ion batteries and adapters, which arrived on the station in early June via aJapanese cargo flight.

The batteries store power generated by the stations solar arrays to provide power to the science labs and experiments aided and overseen by Payload Operations Integration Center personnel at Marshall Space Flight Center even when the station is out of direct sunlight, circling behind Earth during orbital night.

The latest spacewalk on July 1 marked the eighth excursion each for Cassidy and Behnken. Cassidy has logged a total of 43 hours and 22 minutes on spacewalks. Behnkens total is 49 hours and 41 minutes. To date, station crew members have conducted229 spacewalksin support of facility assembly and maintenance. Collectively, spacewalkers have spent 60 days and 34 minutes working outside the station.

Cassidy is commander of the Expedition 63 crew, which also includes NASA flight engineer Doug Hurley, and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.

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Space station crew conduct landmark spacewalks | Military Scene - Theredstonerocket