Spacewalk

Last but definitely not least, a walk outside the Station was performed in order to set the stage for future commercial opportunities. Astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover headed outside on 27 January for a nearly 7-hour walk to work on upgrades to the European Columbus module.

The upgrades included the installation of a Ka-band antenna unit and the connection of the Bartolomeo platform to the Columbus module. The Bartolomeo platform is a new external payload hosting facility that will be used primarily for commercial and scientific purposes. The Ka-band antenna, also known as ColKa, provides ESA with an independent connection between the Columbus module and ground stations, allowing for much faster delivery of scientific data and high-definition video to European scientists.

As sometimes happens when you’re traveling through the vacuum of space at 27 580 kilometres per hour, the crew ran into an extra challenge when cable connectors between the Bartolomeo platform and the Columbus module could not be secured as expected. With the help of the ground team, and their own improvisation skills, the astronauts managed to secure two of the four power connectors. The remaining two power connectors will be addressed during a future walk around the Station.