Watch Live: 2 Astronauts Taking Spacewalk Outside Space Station

Two NASA astronauts are working outside the International Space Station today and you can watch their 6.5-hour spacewalk live here. Astronauts Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan will work to install new solar array batteries on the station's Port 6 truss. The spacewalk is expected to begin at 7:50 a.m. EDT (1150 GMT).

"They will continue swapping out the station’s large nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries. NASA TV begins its live coverage at 6:30 a.m. [EDT]," NASA officials said. 

This is the second spacewalk in six days for Koch and Morgan. The astronauts began the station battery work during a spacewalk on Oct. 5. Ultimately, station astronauts will replace six lithium-ion batteries for the solar arrays over five spacewalks this month. Another five spacewalks are scheduled in November and December repair the station's ailing Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a $2 billion experiment to hunt for cosmic rays. 

Another spacewalk is scheduled for Halloween, Oct. 31, by Russian cosmonauts.

Upcoming spacewalk assignments:

Oct. 5: Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan

Oct. 11: Andrew Morgan and Christina Koch

Oct. 16: Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir

Oct. 21: Christina Koch and Jessica MeirOct. 25: Jessica Meir and Luca Parmitano

Oct. 31: Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Skvortsov

October spacewalks

From NASA:

The first of a set of five spacewalks is scheduled to begin on Sunday, Oct. 6, at about 7:50 a.m. Live NASA Television coverage will begin at 6:30 a.m. This series of spacewalks is dedicated to replacing batteries on the far end of the station’s port truss. The existing nickel-hydrogen batteries will be upgraded with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries transported to the station aboard the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle, which arrived Saturday, Sept. 28. These spacewalks continue the overall upgrade of the station’s power system that began with similar battery replacement during spacewalks in January 2017.

Live HD Views of Earth from Space

You can watch live, high-definition views of Earth from the International Space Station thanks to NASA's High Definition Earth Viewing experiment (HDEV). This live video provides alternating views from four of the station's external cameras nearly 24/7, with the exception of regular and temporary dropouts that occur when the station switches its connection between different communications satellites. Watch it live in the window above, courtesy of NASA TV. 

From NASA:

"Behold, the Earth! See live views of Earth from the International Space Station coming to you by NASA's High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) experiment.

"While the experiment is operational, views will typically sequence through the different cameras. If you are seeing a black image, the Space Station is on the night side of the Earth. If you are seeing an image with text displayed, the communications are switching between satellites and camera feeds are temporarily unavailable. Between camera switches, a black & gray slate will also briefly appear.

"The experiment was activated on April 30, 2014 and is mounted on the External Payload Facility of the European Space Agency’s Columbus module. This experiment includes several commercial HD video cameras aimed at the Earth which are enclosed in a pressurized and temperature controlled housing. To learn more about the HDEV experiment, visit: https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ESRS/HDEV/

"Please note: The HDEV cycling of the cameras will sometimes be halted, causing the video to only show select camera feeds. This is handled by the HDEV team, and is only scheduled on a temporary basis. Nominal video will resume once the team has finished their scheduled event."

'ISS Live!' Tune in to the International Space Station

Find out what the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are up to by tuning in to the "ISS Live" broadcast. Hear conversations between the crew and mission controllers on Earth and watch them work inside the U.S. segment of the orbiting laboratory. When the crew is off duty, you can enjoy live views of Earth from Space. You can watch and listen in the window below, courtesy of NASA.

From NASA:

"Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During 'loss of signal' periods, viewers will see a blue screen.

"Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below." 

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