Expedition 61 Begins: A Series Of Spacewalks Await the International Space Station Crew This Month! – Mashable India

The six-member Expedition 61 has officially started as NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin along with UAE astronaut Hazza Ali AlMansoori undocked from the International Space Station on Thursday.

Expedition 61 astronauts now aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are preparing for a record-breaking 10 spacewalks to be conducted in three months, an unprecedented feat since the assembly of the space station was completed in 2011. Their tasks include replacing batteries on the solar arrays and repairing an important science instrument exploring the universe.

SEE ALSO: Watch: International Space Station Astronauts Parachute Down The Kazakhstan Steppes!

According to NASA, veteran spacewalkers Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan exited the stations Quest airlock in their U.S. spacesuits on Sunday, 5 PM IST for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk during which, they installed new lithium-ion batteries on Port-6 truss structure which is an attachment point of the solar arrays.

.@Astro_Christina and @AstroDrewMorgan successfully wrapped up a seven-hour and one minute spacewalk today beginning the work to upgrade the station's power systems this month. Read more... https://t.co/J1ZplaY8Ex pic.twitter.com/r6M9Zm8zEw

Here's the upcoming spacewalk schedule for the ISS crew:

October 11: Andrew Morgan and Christina Koch

October 16: Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir

October 21: Christina Koch and Jessica Meir

October 25: Jessica Meir and Luca Parmitano

October 31: Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Skvortsov

The second half of this sequence of spacewalk will focus on the repairs to the space stations Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Dates for these rest five spacewalks in the month of November and December are still being discussed.

Till date, the ISS crew members have conducted 219 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting lab. Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 57 days 6 hours and 27 minutes working outside the station.

SEE ALSO: Here's A List of Everything UAE Astronaut Hazza AlMansoori Did On The International Space Station

Read the original:
Expedition 61 Begins: A Series Of Spacewalks Await the International Space Station Crew This Month! - Mashable India