Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson begins first of two power upgrade spacewalks!

Photo Credit: NASA TV

New Delhi: Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA have begun their spacewalk outside International Space Station (ISS).

NASA TV is broadcasting the live coverage. You can also stream the spacewalk live online HERE.

Peggy Whitson at 56, became the oldest woman in space when she arrived at the space station in November and now will become the oldest woman to perform a spacewalk.

According to NASA, during the six-and-a-half hour spacewalk, and as part of their activities, the two astronauts will install adapter plates and hook up electrical connections for three of six new lithium-ion batteries installed on the station’s starboard truss.

The duo will install three adapter plates in slots on the IEA to which three of the old batteries will be mounted to remain on station, but will be dormant. In all, nine old nickel-hydrogen batteries will be stowed on the external pallet for disposal when the HTV is deorbited to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere later this month, says the US space agency.

The two spacewalkers will be assisted by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy from inside the International Space Station.