Watch Live as ISS Crew Members Perform a Spacewalk to Install New Robotic Arm

A Russian cosmonaut and a European astronaut aboard the International Space Station are scheduled to carry out a spacewalk right this moment at 10:00 a.m. ET. The duo will proceed the set up of a robotic arm on the station that’s connected to a Russian module. You can catch the motion stay proper right here.

Update: July 21, 10:00 a.m. ET: The two ISS crew members are about 40 minutes not on time, as they required additional time to placed on their spacesuits. The stroll is now scheduled to start round 10:40 a.m. ET.

Original submit follows.

The International Space Station is the main focus once more right this moment as Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev from Roscosmos and astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning a spacewalk right this moment. This will probably be Cristoforetti’s first spacewalk. Today’s stroll would be the second stint to put in the brand new robotic arm, the first occurring again in April.

In a press release, NASA mentioned the target of the spacewalk—which is slated to take a grueling six-and-a-half hours to finish—is to “install platforms and workstation adapter hardware” close to the Nauka laboratory’s new 37-foot-long (11.2 meters) manipulator arm constructed by ESA. Nauka is a Russian module that reached the ISS final yr.

The duo, who will probably be donning Russian Orlan spacesuits, can be anticipated to maneuver the arm’s management panel, exchange a window on the arm’s digicam, and lengthen a growth from the ISS’s Zarya module to the Poisk module for future spacewalks. NASA says that protection will start at 9:30 a.m. ET, whereas the spacewalk is scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. The protection will probably be streamed on NASA’s web site, app and NASA Television, which can be viewable by way of YouTube. The spacewalk will also be seen on the feed offered above.

The arm will probably be used to maneuver incoming payloads and carry out different duties across the station exterior, however the arm’s destiny was put in query when ESA director Josef Aschbacher introduced earlier this month that ESA and Russia would now not be collaborating on a future mission to Mars amidst Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin then posted some inflammatory phrases for Aschbacher on Telegram and commanded cosmonauts aboard the ISS to stop work on the robotic arm, a directive that Artemyev is now ignoring forward of his spacewalk with Cristoforetti. No matter, as a result of Rogozin was dismissed from his place as director of Roscosmos simply final week.

This upcoming spacewalk is a testomony to the collaboration that may exist aboard the International Space Station amongst the shared aim of scientific development and pleasure for house analysis, even within the face of strenuous geopolitics.

More: Despite Recent Tensions, NASA and Roscosmos Sign Seat-Swap Agreement