Tim Peake to assist maintenance spacewalk on ISS

United Kingdom astronaut Tim Peake has been helping his crew members Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra conduct a space walk outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday.

Kelly was the lead spacewalker.

During the EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity), scheduled for 1.10pm United Kingdom time, Major Peake will be responsible for getting Kopra and Kelly in and out of their space suits and safely through the airlock.

The Mobile Transporter had to be moved and latched in the right position to clear a path for an unmanned Russian Progress supply craft, due to dock in two days.

The Progress cargo ship filled with food and supplies launched from Kazakhstan about four hours before the spacewalk began.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly commanded the spacewalk, his third, and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra joined him outside.

NASA is live streaming the spacewalk, which began at 7:45am EST and is expected to last between three and three-and-a-half hours.

The vehicle serves as a mobile base for a Canadian-built robotic crane to move rails outside the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that files about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

NASA engineers suspect the stalled railcar is the result of a stuck brake handle, according to Kenny Todd, the station’s Mission Integration and Operations Manager at NASA’s Mission Control center in Houston.

The surprise spacewalk next week will be the 191st dedicated to space station assembly or fix. Kopra also retrieved some tools stored on the side of the station for a future spacewalk.

They received assistance from Tim Peake and Sergey Volkov, as they prepared to go out into space.

Mr Peake arrived at the ISS on Tuesday – the first Briton to be selected by the European Space Agency – and will spend six months aboard the space station.

Kelly and Kornienko are in the midst of a yearlong space mission that will end in March.