NASA sets coverage for Roscosmos spacewalk 63 outside space station

December 17th, 2024 • Roxana Bardan

Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub from Roscosmos is pictured during a spacewalk to inspect a backup radiator, deploy a nanosatellite, and install communications hardware on the International Space Station’s Nauka science module. Credit: NASA

NASA will provide live coverage as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station on Thursday, Dec. 19.

NASA's live coverage begins at 9:45 a.m. EST, Thursday on NASA+. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:10 a.m. and last about six and a half hours.

Expedition 72 crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner will venture outside the station's Poisk module to install an experiment package designed to monitor celestial X-ray sources and new electrical connector patch panels and remove several experiments for disposal. The two cosmonauts also will relocate a control panel for the European robotic arm, which is attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov will operate the arm during the spacewalk from inside the station.

Roscosmos spacewalk 63 will be the second for Ovchinin and the first for Vagner. Ovchinin will wear an Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, and Vagner will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes. It will be the 272nd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Provided by NASA