Today the astronauts are getting ready for the second spacewalk, the USOS EVA#23. The day is primarily dedicated to reviewing the details of the spacewalk. The teams have worked hard to incorporate the changes resulting from the first spacewalk into tomorrow’s plan. Last week’s spacewalk included several ‘get-ahead tasks’, meaning that Chris and Luca performed additional tasks because they finished their main tasks earlier than scheduled.

Credit NASA

This of course means that some of the tasks planned for tomorrow’s spacewalk have changed, so Chris and Luca are preparing for that today.

They will review the plan and procedures for tomorrow and later on, they will hold a conference with the control centre to go over some more details. They  will also organise their tools and prepare the airlock through which they will exit into space. The airlock consists of two compartments: the Equipment Lock, which provides the system and volume for suit maintenance, and the Crew Lock , which is the actual exit into space.

Here at the Columbus Control Centre, we are ready and looking forward to Luca’s next spacewalk and we have just received the GO from the Mission Management Team.

Luca in the airlock
Credits: NASA

The spacewalkers will have another long day, starting shortly after 06:00 GMT and finishing at 19:40 GMT.

This next spacewalk will include the following tasks for Luca:

12:15 GMT          Exit the ISS

12:35-13:00         Cable connections

13:00-14:00         MLM Cable install

14:00-14:45         SPDA Door

14:45-16:15         WETA relocate to Node2 zenith

16:15-17:00         MBSU MLI removal

17:00-17:40         Get-ahead tasks

17:40-18:30         Ingress