HOUSTON - Two NASA astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power on October 5, 2017 at 8:05 a.m. EDT aboard the International Space Station to begin a spacewalk planned to last about 6.5 hours.
Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei of NASA will replace one of two Latching End Effectors (LEE) on the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2. Canadarm2 has two identical Latching End Effectors used to grapple visiting cargo vehicles and payloads, provide data and telemetry to the rest of the Canadian-built Mobile Base System and the unique capability to "walk" from one location on the station’s truss to another.
This is the third spacewalk of Bresnik’s career and the first for Vande Hei.
The space station partners have shifted their focus from building the ISS to operating it. Although originally the U.S. only planned to fund ISS operations through 2015, all ISS partner nations decided to extend the station's life through 2020. More recently, the U.S., Russia, Canada, and Japan agreed to extend operations through 2024, while ESA is still deciding.
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