SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule looked 'pretty awesome' in spacewalk, astronaut says

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy snapped this photo of SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle docked with the International Space Station during a spacewalk with Bob Behnken on Friday, June 26, 2020.  (Image credit: Bob Behnken/Twitter)

NASA astronauts got a "pretty awesome" view of SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle docked with the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Friday (June 29).

Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken got the view of a lifetime when they stepped outside the space station to replace the outpost's old solar array batteries. The star of that view was Endeavour, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that delivered Behnken and his fellow NASA astronaut Doug Hurley to the station May 30 on their Demo-2 mission.

Cassidy snapped a photo of the sight, with Endeavour clearly straight ahead but JAXA's HTV-9 cargo vehicle also visible. In the photo, pictured just below the craft, you can see the stunning, blue curvature of the Earth. 

"Yesterday @Astro_SEAL snapped this shot from our worksite on @Space_Station' - @SpaceX's Crew Dragon and @JAXA_en's HTV in clear view. Not bad for a view while working..." Behnken wrote June 27, the day after the spacewalk, on Twitter. 

Related: International Space Station at 20: A photo tour

Today (June 29), when asked about the most memorable moments from this spacewalk during a media conference from aboard the space station, Behnken noted this view as one of those moments.

"Chris and I had a great event last Friday and a wonderful view of Dragon," Behnken said. "It was just awesome to be able to look back and snap a picture and I think we got a good daylight shot that kind of showed HTV and Dragon all out there on the front of space station. It was pretty awesome."

The pair stepped out for this spacewalk to swap out aging nickel-hydrogen batteries for new, more efficient, smaller lithium-ion batteries as part of a series of battery swap spacewalks. Behnken and Cassidy will venture out on another battery swap spacewalk Wednesday (July 1). 

While Behnken and Hurley, who assisted with the spacewalk from aboard the space station, remain on orbit, Endeavour will continue to go through tests as the Demo-2 mission is a test flight for the vehicle. But, as Behnken said today during the media conference, "our ship has performed really well. I think they've had a lot of predict[ion]s in terms of how it would behave with respect to temperature, how it would behave with respect to radiation for the computers and electronics that's onboard. And that's really proceeded as expected." 

He added that Endeavour's positive performance has been "the thing that really gives Doug and I continued confidence in the vehicle." 

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Chelsea Gohd
Senior Writer

Chelsea “Foxanne” Gohd joined Space.com in 2018 and is now a Senior Writer, writing about everything from climate change to planetary science and human spaceflight in both articles and on-camera in videos. With a degree in Public Health and biological sciences, Chelsea has written and worked for institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, Scientific American, Discover Magazine Blog, Astronomy Magazine and Live Science. When not writing, editing or filming something space-y, Chelsea "Foxanne" Gohd is writing music and performing as Foxanne, even launching a song to space in 2021 with Inspiration4. You can follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd and @foxannemusic.

  • ClarkMills
    Next mission I would like to see a Roadster Red Dragon with Black Solar Stripe parked up next to the white one.
    (I was going to say "Hot Red"...)
    Reply
  • COLGeek
    Friday was the 26th. Today is the 29th. Seems we have some disturbance in the space-time continuum. ;)
    Reply
  • Lovethrust
    COLGeek said:
    Friday was the 26th. Today is the 29th. Seems we have some disturbance in the space-time continuum. ;)
    I thought I felt funny...
    Reply