First African-American Astronaut To Board The International Space Station

This was the first of two spacewalks astronauts will perform this month to finalize the replacement of 12 old nickel-hydrogen batteries six with new lithium-ion batteries.

Kimbrough is wearing the suit bearing red stripes marked as EV1 member 1, but Whitson is wearing the suit with no stripes, marked EV2, member 2.

NASA is sending an African-American astronaut to the International Space Station for the first time. Built by Swales Aerospace Inc., it is the staple of NASA’s space tool arsenal.

Feustel won’t be the only Purdue graduate in the space station. Whitson will break that record during the next few months. According to NASA, Epps will be one of the very distinguished astronauts – one of 200 – that have visited the International Space Station, which allows NASA to make new research breakthroughs and discoveries.

For one thing, it has to withstand quick fluctuations in temperature by hundreds of degrees. “But of course, as we’re going around the Earth 16 times in a day, half of that time the Earth is between us and the sun and so we have to have a way to store our power”. They then used power tools to attach the batteries to the power system. The pistol-grip tool is made of Lexan, a glass-infused plastic, and wrapped in aluminum tape. The batteries can start working as soon as they are fitted. Soon Jeanette Epps will become the first African-American to set off for ISS in 2018. NASA likes the new lithium-ion batteries because they have lighter mass, making them easier to get to orbit, and they’re supposed to last much longer than the older batteries.

The operation took more than 4 hours.

On an interview with Chris Cassidy, chief of Astronaut office, NASA, he put forward his statement, “Every space station crew brings something different to the space table”. Mission Control, meanwhile, has treated the crew to the latest space-themed movies: “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, as well as “Passengers” and “Hidden Figures”.

Whitson’s total through seven EVAs over three fights stands at 46 hours and 18 minutes, moving her up to 14th on the list of most experienced spacewalkers.