Two passengers from the International Space Station began a spacewalk on Wednesday, the US space agency NASA has reported.
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Americans Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken switched to the internal systems of their spacesuit at 1.13pm Belgian time, the official start of their seven-hour outing.
Just like Friday, the duo have to replace batteries on one of the trusses of the space meccano. In particular, Cassidy and Behnken remove nickel-hydrogen batteries and install new lithium-ion batteries that arrived with a Japanese cargo last month.
The conscious batteries store electricity that is generated by one pair of the solar panels. The replacement should upgrade the ISS’s electricity supply, NASA says.
It is the 229th spacewalk in the context of the assembly and maintenance of the space station, in which Belgium also participates.
It is the eighth time that both astronauts work in absolute vacuum.
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