NASA ASTRONAUTS WALK IN SPACE OUTSIDE THE SPACE STATION

Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 59 Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nick Hague of NASA conducted a spacewalk on March 22 to begin the replacement of old nickel-hydrogen batteries with new, more powerful lithium-ion batteries as part of an ongoing upgrade to the station’s power system. McClain and Hague conducted the first of three spacewalks by station crewmembers over the next two-and-a-half weeks to replace the batteries for the station’s port 4 (P4) truss power channels and to enhance station communications systems. McClain and Christina Koch of NASA are scheduled to continue the battery swap-out work on the next spacewalk on March 29. On April 8, Hague will be joined by Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency for the third spacewalk in this series to install jumper cables that will provide redundancy to station robotics systems and to upgrade communications gear.