Spacewalk Photos: International Space Station Gets a Power Upgrade

Kimbrough caught a glimpse of his reflection over the Earth during the spacewalk. This is a view from Kimbrough’s helmet camera.

The Earth is seen below Pesquet’s feet in this view of his first spacewalk.

Shane Kimbrough led the way out of the Quest airlock and into the vacuum of space.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet emerged from the airlock shortly after Kimbrough.

Mission control repeatedly asked Kimbrough and Pesquet to perform glove checks to ensure that there was no damage to the most vulnerable part of their spacesuits.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet snapped his first space selfie during his first spacewalk.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s feet dangle in space about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson took this photo of Thomas Pesquet through the hatch at the Quest airlock before he and Shane Kimbrough set out for their spacewalk.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet tries on his spacesuit for a fit check in preparation for his first spacewalk.

NASA Astronaut Shane Kimbrough at the airlock about five hours into the spacewalk

NASA astronaut and current commander of the International Space Station Shane Kimbrough floats weightlessly next to two spacesuits. Kimbrough and the Expedition 50 crew performed routine maintenance on the spacesuits throughout December to prepare for spacewalks coming up in January 2017.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson helped the two astronauts get suited up before sending them off through the Quest airlock and into the vacuum of space.

Pesquet heads to the external palette, where adapter plates for the new lithium-ion batteries are stored.

If you look closely, you’ll spot NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough working on the space station’s truss. Below him are the space station’s solar panels.

Thomas Pesquet is seen working at the space station’s external palette.

Shane Kimbrough (left) heads down the space station’s truss to meet up with Thomas Pesquet (right) at the external palette.

Kimbrough is seen working with his headlights on as the space station passes over the nighttime side of the Earth.

Kimbrough (bottom) and Pesquet (top) work to remove the adapter plates from the external palette so they can be installed onto the power grid.

Kimbrough and Pesquet used body tethers to attach the adapter plates to their spacesuits before carrying them down the truss to the power assembly.

The astronauts carry a bag with tools during the spacewalk. One of those tools is a power drill used to turn bolts and screws.

Kimbrough (left) and Pesquet (right) are seen working their way down the space station’s truss, the “backbone” of the station’s structure.

The station’s old nickel-hydrogen batteries were placed back onto the external palette for storage.

Pesquet is seen outside of the space station with his tool bag during his first spacewalk.

With time left to spare, Pesquet visited the “rat’s nest,” a jumble of cables outside the ISS, to take photos for flight planners on the ground. The survey photos will help them prepare for future spacewalking tasks.

The duo made a pit stop at the Quest airlock from which they emerged this morning to drop off some tools and pick up padded shields, which they then carried to the Node 3 or “Tranquility” module. Located at this module are six berthing locations where visiting spacecraft can dock to the ISS.

The shields will protect one of Tranquility’s pressurized mating adapters from potentially hazardous collisions with space debris.

Kimbrough heads to the U.S. Destiny Laboratory to remove two unnecessary handrails, making room for two communication antennas that will be installed in future spacewalks.

French Astronaut Thomas Pesquet waves at Russian cosmonaut Oleg Navitskiy in a window from outside the airlock during the last few minutes of his spacewalk.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet works outside the space station’s truss.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet hangs out of the hatch in this photo taken by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Navitskiy.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough works outside the International Space Station during the spacewalk.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet holds on to the International Space Station in this photo taken by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Navitskiy, who was inside the station during the spacewalk.

The Quest airlock through which the astronauts exit and enter the space station is seen here in the top left

In this view of the right side of the International Space Station, you can see the batteries that the spacewalkers switched out beneath the solar arrays

Peggy Whitson and Oleg Navitskiy assist as Pesquet returns from his spacewalk.

Peggy Whitson takes photos of the spacewalkers’ gloves, which will later be closely examined by the ground team to check for damages incurred during the spacewalk.

This diagram shows how the new lithium-ion batteries and adapter plates are configured with the old nickel-hydrogen batteries.

This diagram shows the configuration of batteries and adapter plates before and after the spacewalk. Adapter plates were removed from the HTV-6 cargo craft and installed at the station’s integrated electronics assembly (IEA) to complete the replacement of nickel-hydrogen batteries with lithium-ion batteries.

NASA’s mission control in Houston monitored the spacewalk while helping to guide the astronauts through all their tasks.