Indian American astronaut Raja Chari, commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), conducted his first spacewalk on Tuesday.
After more than a week of spacewalk preparation, Chari finally stepped out of the airlock alongside NASA flight engineer Kayla Barron. They spent almost 7 hours in the vacuum of space to carry out ISS upgrades. It was Barron’s second time walking outside the station.
Two hours into today’s spacewalk, @NASA_Astronauts Kayla Barron and Raja Chari continue installing mod kits to ready the station for a third roll-out solar array. #AskNASA | https://t.co/yuOTrYN8CV pic.twitter.com/2c1zFaFc71
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) March 15, 2022
POV: Up above the world so high. 🌎 pic.twitter.com/DgzVhOeGgj
— NASA (@NASA) March 15, 2022
The two astronauts successfully carried out a modification kit installation at the ISS to support an upcoming solar array upgrade. The installation of the new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) will increase the station’s total electrical capacity from 160 kilowatts to a maximum of 215 kilowatts.
Spacewalk complete! ✅
Astronauts Kayla Barron and @Astro_Raja concluded today’s spacewalk at 3:06pm ET (19:06 UTC), preparing the @Space_Station for more solar array upgrades. It was Barron’s second venture into the vacuum of space, and Chari’s first: https://t.co/kDxcgLuaPB pic.twitter.com/4CReyAUTte
— NASA (@NASA) March 15, 2022
The upgrade will significantly help the station respond to the increasing demands of its daily operations as it harnesses energy from the Sun.
Chari, a U.S. Air Force colonel, became an astronaut in 2017. He was appointed as the commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission in 2020 and arrived at the orbiting outpost last year.
The astronauts of the Crew-3 mission will do another spacewalk on March 23 to carry out maintenance work and repairs to the ISS, which is set to operate until 2030.
Featured Image via NASA (left), International Space Station (right)
