Spacewalk Photos: Astronauts Prep Space Station for Future Commercial Spacecraft

A Far Reach

NASA

Pesquet stood on an extended foot restraint while servicing Dextre's latching end effector, or the "hand" at the end of the robotic arm.

Peggy Lends a Hand

ESA/NASA

As Pesquet worked on the space station's robotic arm from outside, flight engineer Peggy Whitson operated the arm from inside the space station.

Thanks, Peggy!

NASA

Whitson operated the robotic arm from inside the space station, bringing it closer to Pesquet so he could add lubricant to the latching end effector.

Dextre's View

NASA

A camera on the Dextre robotic arm grabs a great shot of Pesquet as he works to add lubricant to the latching end effector.

Pesquet & the BLT

NASA

Pesquet spent nearly 4 hours using a device called the ballscrew lubrication tool, or BLT, to inject grease into the latching end effector.

Glove Check

NASA

Pesquet performs a glove check while working on the space station's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, also known as Dextre, which is an extension of the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Latching End Effector

ESA/NASA

Pesquet was tasked with adding lubricant to the Latching End Effector, the "hand" at the end of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, otherwise known as Dextre.

Sunrise

NASA

The sun begins to rise at the International Space Station as Pesquet continues work on the robotic arm.

Kimbrough Gets Ahead

NASA

After completing his work at the Pressurized Mating Adapter, Kimbrough went to the Japanese Kibo module for a "get-ahead" task, in which he replaced two cameras that had broken lights.

Kimbrough at the Kibo Module

NASA

The lights Kimbrough removed will be replaced after the spacewalk by crewmembers inside the space station and can still be used in the future. Replacing them in the vacuum of space while wearing bulky EVA gloves isn't very practical.

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Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.