(6 Oct 2019) Astronauts on Sunday kicked off the first of five spacewalks to replace old batteries at the International Space Station.
Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan planned to remove a pair of old batteries and install a new one delivered just a week ago.
The new lithium-ion batteries are so powerful that only one is needed for every two old ones, which are original to the orbiting lab.
The 400-pound (180-kilogramme) batteries - half the size of a refrigerator - are part of the space station's solar power network.
Astronauts have been upgrading them since 2017 and are halfway done.
The old batteries are 10 years old; the new ones are expected to last until the end of the space station's life.
The latest battery swaps are especially difficult given the extreme location on the station's sprawling frame.
It's too far for the 58-foot (17-metre) robot arm to reach, forcing astronauts to lug the batteries back and forth themselves.
That's why so many spacewalks are needed this time to replace 12 old nickel-hydrogen batteries with six new lithium-ion versions.
NASA plans to wrap up the five battery spacewalks this month, followed by a Russian spacewalk.
Then five more US-Italian spacewalks will be conducted in November and December to fix a key science instrument.
This unusual crush of spacewalks will feature the first all-female spacewalk - by Koch and Jessica Meir - later this month.
Koch is two-thirds of the way through a more than 300-day mission - the longest single spaceflight by a woman.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
