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 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.