U.S. Spacewalk 71 Animation
On Sunday, Feb. 28, NASA Astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover will step out of the space station to begin assembling and installing modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades. The current solar arrays are functioning well, but have begun to show signs of degradation, as expected, as they were designed for a 15-year service life. The first pair of solar arrays were deployed in December 2000 and have been powering the station for more than 20 years. Later this year, the new solar arrays will be positioned in front of six of the current arrays, increasing the station’s total available power from 160 kilowatts to up to 215 kilowatts. Rubins will be extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1) wearing red stripes. Glover will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2) and wear a suit with no stripes. This spacewalk will be the third of Rubins’ career. Glover has conducted two spacewalks as part of this expedition, making the spacewalk on Feb. 28 the third in his career. It will be the 235th in the history of station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades. Live coverage of the Sunday, Feb. 28, spacewalk will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website at 4:30 a.m. EST, with the crew members scheduled to exit the station’s Quest airlock about 6:00 a.m. EST. In November 2020, the International Space Station surpassed its 20-year milestone of continuous human presence, providing opportunities for unique research and technological demonstrations that help prepare for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars and also improve life on Earth. In that time, 242 people from 19 countries have visited the orbiting laboratory that has hosted nearly 3,000 research investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.