On Friday, two astronauts completed their 258th spacewalk from the International Space Station. For Koichi Wakata and Nicole Mann, this was the first spacewalk of their careers as JAXA and NASA astronauts. The astronauts continued to work on installing new solar panels at the station to provide the ISS with the required level of power supply.
Image Source: NASA
The astronauts spent 7 hours and 21 minutes in outer space. During this time, they completed the remaining unfinished operations from the last time to prepare the platform (bracket) for the installation of a set of retractable solar arrays (iROSA) for the power channel 1B and most of the installation of the bracket for the installation of the iROSA kit for connecting to the power channel 1A. Completion of the installation of the second platform will be carried out during the next spacewalk.
Currently, four sets of iROSA solar panels are installed and connected to their power channels. Two more panels will be installed during subsequent exits. The spacewalk on January 20 was the first in 2023 from the ISS. Japanese Koichi Wakata and American Nicole Mann spent about half the time on the ISS of their planned six-month expedition. The spacewalk in spacesuits was the first for them in their careers as astronauts.
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