NASA Astronauts Space Walk Outside the ISS

Spacewalking astronauts face a wide variety of temperatures. In Earth orbit, conditions can be as cold as minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit. In the sunlight, they can be as hot as 250 degrees. A spacesuit protects astronauts from those extreme temperatures.

This footage was taken by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson during a spacewalk on the International Space Station on Thursday, March 30, 2017. She was joined on the spacewalk by NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough.

The two spacewalkers reconnected cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 at its new home on top of the Harmony module. They also installed the second of the two upgraded computer relay boxes on the station’s truss and installed shields and covers on PMA-3 and the now-vacant common berthing mechanism port on Tranquility.

During the spacewalk, one of the shields was inadvertently lost. The loss posed no immediate danger to the astronauts and Kimbrough and Whitson went on to successfully install the remaining shields on the common berthing mechanism port.

A team from the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston devised a plan for the astronauts to finish covering the port with the PMA-3 cover Whitson removed earlier in the day. The plan worked, and the cover was successfully installed, providing thermal protection and micrometeoroid and orbital debris cover for the port.