Nasa’s Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy floated out of the International Space Station on their fourth and final spacewalk in under a month. Instead of swapping batteries, they had to route cables, hook up a tool storage chest and perform other maintenance.
It was the 10th spacewalk in each of their careers, tying the US record set by previous space station residents.
In less than two weeks, Mr Behnken and Doug Hurley, who monitored the spacewalk from inside, will leave the orbiting complex in the same SpaceX Dragon crew capsule in which they arrived at the end of May.
At 7:12 am ET, @Astro_SEAL and @AstroBehnken set their suits to battery power, marking the beginning of a spacewalk that may last as long as 7 hours.
🔧The duo will perform a number of tasks designed to upgrade @Space_Station systems. https://t.co/pF4HESrrfw— NASA (@NASA) July 21, 2020
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SpaceX is aiming for a splashdown off the Florida coast in August — the first for astronauts in 45 years.
Weather permitting, the Dragon capsule will parachute into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle.
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said once Tuesday’s spacewalk is finished, the astronauts are “going to be focused like a laser on coming home”.
He said the SpaceX test flight has gone exceedingly well so far. “And I’m knocking on wood because it is not over until Bob and Doug are home,” he said at a Space Foundation panel discussion.
The first-stage booster used to launch Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley on May 30 blasted off for a second time on Monday from Cape Canaveral. It landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic after hoisting a satellite for South Korea’s military, to be used again for another flight.
