ISS Spacewalk 237 successful, goes on for 6 hours

Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr conducted the 237th spacewalk for the International Space Station on Saturday. This marked the fifth spacewalk of 2021. 

The spacewalk went on for six hours and 47 minutes beginning at 8:14 am ET and ending at 3:01 pm ET. Assisting with upgrades to the orbiting laboratory, the NASA astronauts connected cables for the European Space Agency’s Columbus module’s Bartolomeo platform and replaced a cable for an amateur radio system, according to the agency. Bartolomeo can host external payloads, reported CNN. 

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Hopkins and Glover vented the early system jumper cables then reconnected them to the current cooling system for more efficiency. Hopkins’ helmet had an HD camera to capture the view while out. 

The two astronauts reached space as part of the NASA-SpaceX Crew-1 mission in November 2020. 

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They also installed a stiffener on the airlock’s flexible thermal cover, replaced a wireless antenna assembly on the first US-built module known as Unity, and routed cables to provide ethernet capabilities for two HD cameras outside the station.

The previous spacewalk was completely utilised to install modification kits which will allow new solar arrays (help boost power in the station) to arrive outside the station later in the year