Astronauts at ISS Venture Out to Space for Station's Power System Upgrade - NASA

Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson started first out of the two spacewalks required to upgrade the International Space Station's (ISS) power system, according to the statement of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson have begun the first out of the two spacewalks required to upgrade the International Space Station's (ISS) power system, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Friday.

"@Astro_Kimbrough and @AstroPeggy exit the @Space_Station to get started with #spacewalk activities," NASA said in its Twitter.

.@Astro_Kimbrough and @AstroPeggy exit the @Space_Station to get started with #spacewalk activities. Watch live: https://t.co/mzKW5uDsTi pic.twitter.com/iRU3jW1jWV

— NASA (@NASA) January 6, 2017

​According to NASA, the astronauts have to install adapter plates and hook up electrical connections for new lithium-ion batteries.

NASA said that robots had already installed three new batteries and removed four old nickel-hydrogen ones.

The spacewalk can be watched live on NASA's website.