NASA Astronauts Making Spacewalk Debut at Space Station Today: Watch Live

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is seen in his NASA spacesuit on the International Space Station on Oct. 27, 2015 ahead of his first spacewalk on Oct. 28 with crewmate Kjell Lindgren, also of NASA.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is seen in his NASA spacesuit on the International Space Station on Oct. 27, 2015 ahead of his first spacewalk on Oct. 28 with crewmate Kjell Lindgren, also of NASA. (Image credit: NASA via Scott Kelly/@StationCDRKelly)

Two NASA astronauts will take the first spacewalk of their careers today (Oct. 28) and you can watch their orbital debut live online as it happens. 

American astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren plan to spend nearly six-and-a-half hours working outside the International Space Station during their spacewalk, which will be dedicated to "station upgrades and maintenance tasks," according to NASA. The spacewalk is slated to begin at 8:10 a.m. EDT (1210 GMT), but NASA's webcast of the event will begin earlier at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT). 

You can watch the spacewalk webcast live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. 

Both Kelly and Lindgren have said they are excited for today's spacewalk, which will include (among other tasks) the installation of a protective cover on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a $2 billion particle physics detector that has been performing science on the station's exterior since 2011. On Tuesday, Kelly posted a photo of himself clad in his NASA-issue spacesuit in preparation for today's excursion. 

"Getting my game face on for #spacewalk," Kelly wrote on Twitter, where he posts as @StationCDRKelly.

Not to be outdone, Lindgren recorded a time-lapse video of his tool belt prep work and posted to his own Twitter feed @astro_kjell

"Preparing my space suit tool belt for tomorrow's spacewalk," Lindgren wrote Tuesday. "I wonder how Batman goes through this process." Take a look at Lindgren's video and be amazed here:

Preparing my space suit tool belt for tomorrow’s #spacewalk. I wonder if Batman goes through this process? https://t.co/xlYa5Bo5M2

Today's spacewalk is actually the first of two planned for Kelly and Lindgren to work on the International Space Station. The next one is scheduled for next Friday, on Nov. 6. Today's spacewalk will be the 32nd U.S. spacewalk outside the station and the 189th spacewalk overall in the station's history. 

Kelly and Lindgren are part of the six-man Expedition 45 crew currently living aboard the International Space Station. Kelly, who is in the middle of a one-year spaceflight, is commanding the mission. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Volkov, Mikhail Kornienko, Oleg Kononenko and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui round out the crew. Kornienko is also flying the one-year mission with Kelly.

Visit Space.com later today for complete coverage of today's spacewalk and a final wrap up of the day's orbital activities by late afternoon. 

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.