Space and Physics
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Today at about 8am EDT (1pm BST), you can watch live as two astronauts perform a spacewalk to install a new docking adapter on the International Space Station (ISS).
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Known as an extravehicular activity (EVA), the event will see astronauts Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins head outside the station. The goal of the spacewalk is to provide a new “parking spot” for upcoming private spacecraft from SpaceX and Boeing.
The astronauts will install the Boeing-built International Docking Adapter (IDA) on the station’s Harmony module, where the Space Shuttle used to dock. The IDA was transported to the ISS by a SpaceX Dragon vehicle in July – a good example already of Boeing and SpaceX’s involvement in this multi-national endeavor.
This will be the fourth spacewalk for Williams, and the first for Rubins. The IDA itself is specifically designed for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, both of which hope to start transporting astronauts to the ISS by next year at the earliest. Previous spacewalks prepared the port for this adapter, and now that it’s on the station, it’s ready to be installed.
So, check out the live stream below to watch all the action later today. Coverage begins at 6.30am EDT (11.30am BST), with the spacewalk itself starting around 8.05am EDT (1.05pm BST).
