Update: NASA astronaut Raja Chari and European astronaut Matthias Maurer successfully upgraded the International Space Station in an hours-long spacewalk today. See our full wrap story here.
Two astronauts will conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday morning (March 23), and you can watch the off-world action live.
NASA's Raja Chari and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency are scheduled to step outside the orbiting lab Wednesday around 8:50 a.m. EDT (1250 GMT) for a roughly 6.5-hour spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA).
You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, or directly via the space agency. Coverage begins at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT).
Spacewalks: How they work and major milestones
Chari and Maurer "will install hoses on a Radiator Beam Valve Module that routes ammonia through the station's heat-rejecting radiators to keep systems at the proper temperature," NASA officials wrote in a spacewalk preview earlier this month.
"The crewmembers will also install a power and data cable on the Columbus module's Bartolomeo science platform, replace an external camera on the station's truss, and conduct other upgrades to station hardware," they added.
This will be the second EVA in a little over a week for the station crew. On March 15, Chari and fellow NASA astronaut Kayla Barron spent nearly seven hours getting the orbiting lab ready for the addition of an upgraded solar array.
Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
