International Space Station astronauts to complete second spacewalk

16 Jul 2013

Flight engineer Chris Cassidy participates in a session of extravehicular activity as work continues on the International Space Station on 9 July. Image via NASA

Two astronauts will step outside the International Space Station today for the second time this month to complete work they began on the orbiting space lab on 9 July. US space agency NASA will broadcast the event live online.

Flight engineers Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano are scheduled to begin their six-hour and 15-minute spacewalk at 8.10am EST (1.10pm Irish time).

The duo are to finish the installation of bypass jumpers to provide power redundancy to critical station components, route cables for a new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module set to arrive later this year, and perform maintenance and inspection tasks, NASA said.

Viewers can watch the spacewalk on NASA Television. Parmitano will be wearing an all-white suit, while Cassidy’s suit will sport red stripes.

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

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