At approximately 8:05 a.m. EDT April 8 David Saint-Jacques will enter the International Space Station Quest airlock and shortly thereafter begin his first spacewalk, something he’s wanted to do since he first dreamed of going into space.
Venturing beyond the relative safety of the International Space Station or any other spacecraft is something that all astronauts aspire to do at least once in their careers. Only 39% of those who’ve been to space have participated in a spacewalk and Saint-Jacques will become only the 225th human to do it.
Spacesuit check
After spending a few days putting together my spacesuit and tools, today I tried them on. Like a dress rehearsal! // Après avoir passé quelques jours à assembler ma combinaison et mes outils, je les essaie aujourd’hui. Comme dans une répétition générale! pic.twitter.com/8kB5vitOgW
— David Saint-Jacques (@Astro_DavidS) April 5, 2019
Joining Saint-Jacques on what will officially be known as US Spacewalk 54 is Anne McClain who will be performing her second spacewalk on Expedition 59.
Saint-Jacques and McClain will spend approximately 7 hours outside the space station and will install truss jumpers on the Unity module and the Starboard truss structure to ensure the Canadarm2 stays powered in the event one of its other power units fail.
SpaceQ will be have live coverage courtesy of NASA TV starting at 6:30 a.m. EDT.
Tasks to be performed on US Spacewalk 54