Crew Wraps Final Spacewalk Preparations

NASA astronaut and Expedition 74 flight engineer Jessica Meir’s reflection is captured in a spacesuit helmet visor. The visor assembly is coated with a microscopic layer of gold that reflects infrared radiation to protect an astronaut’s eyes while allowing visible light to pass through. Meir was working inside the International Space Station’s Quest airlock, installing leg and arm components on the spacesuit and swapping components from one suit to another. NASA/Jack Hathaway

Tuesday brought the final preparations for tomorrow’s spacewalk where two NASA astronauts will exit the International Space Station and enter the vacuum of space for space station solar array upgrade work. The Expedition 74 crew members prepped spacesuits and reviewed procedures while working in some time for maintenance and science activities.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams will power on their spacesuits tomorrow morning for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The duo will exit the Quest airlock to install a modification kit and route cables on the port side of the station. It will be Meir’s fourth spacewalk and Williams’ first.

NASA’s live coverage will begin at 6:30 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. U.S. spacewalk 94 will begin at approximately 8 a.m.

To gear up for tomorrow’s spacewalk, Meir and Williams readied their spacesuits and equipment and also finalized the configuration of tools they’ll use while in the vacuum of space. Later on, the duo was joined by NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot to review procedural timelines and checklists.

Hathaway and Adenot teamed up throughout the day to complete a round of camera and lighting training. The duo also inspected and cleaned the orbital complex’s ventilation system.

In the cupola, Adenot scheduled in some time to photograph the Moon. As part of the Earthshine experiment, crew members will take photographs of the lunar surface during different phases to study changes in Earth’s reflectance of light. The photos are then analyzed by ground teams to help scientists improve climate models.

In the morning, Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov worked with flight engineer Sergei Mikaev to load up and prepare flight simulation training software. Later on, the two cosmonauts worked in the Zvezda Service Module to gather equipment for future inspections. Kud-Sverchkov then took inventory of cargo to be loaded into the Progress 93 cargo spacecraft while Mikaev filmed his crewmates as they conducted science, maintenance, and exercise to document life aboard the space station. Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev spent his day conducting maintenance before attaching sensors to his forehead, fingers and toes to capture blood flow data for health analysis.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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