French astronaut Thomas Pesquet with the ESA attached a "space-proof" camera to the chest of his spacesuit and recorded himself, along with NASA's Shane Kimbrough (commander of the ISS' 50th and current expedition), boosting the station's power grid.
The ISS is due for a power upgrade, replacing the station's older nickel-hydrogen batteries with those manufactured with lithium-ion. The improvements began in December 2016 with robotic upgrades, and in early January Kimbrough and fellow NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson installed three of the six new batteries.
The spacewalk took place on January 13 and went flawlessly, as the two astronauts finished their task of installing the remaining three batteries in just over half the allotted time. They spent the remaining three hours performing "get-ahead" tasks such as moving tools, taking photographs, and making room for communication antennas to be installed in the future.
Doing a #spacewalk is not a simple case of putting on the suit and popping outside! @astro_kimbrough and I preparing back in December #TBT pic.twitter.com/uxHHVwAQY4
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) January 12, 2017
It was Pesquet's first spacewalk, and Kimbrough's fourth. Pesquet may be a rookie astronaut, having entered orbit for the first time two months ago, but, according to reports, he showed skill and professionalism during the six-hour spacewalk.
The new batteries hold more charge and are more efficient than the old ones. As before, ISS batteries are charged by solar panels while the station is in sunlight.
Went outside for a #spacewalk today with @Thom_astro. So amazing to be a part of a huge TEAM that made it all happen. pic.twitter.com/QdhVSnY8iA
— Shane Kimbrough (@astro_kimbrough) January 13, 2017
Besides Pesquet, Kimbrough, and Whitson, the ISS is also staffed by a trio of Roscosmos cosmonauts: rookies Oleg Novitsky and Sergey Ryzhikov, and veteran Andrei Borisenko, who also served as the commander of the 27th and 28th ISS Expeditions, in 2011.
