Astronauts Begin Spacewalk to Repair Canadarm2 Robotic Arm
NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir are pictured training for a spacewalk in their spacesuits at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, Texas.
NASA
NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir began a spacewalk at 8:20 a.m. EDT today to replace a wrist joint that malfunctioned during normal Canadarm2 operations on May 27.
Live coverage continues on NASA+, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
Williams is spacewalk crew member 1, wearing the suit with red stripes. Meir is crew member 2, wearing the unmarked suit.
Editor’s note: In honor of America’s 250th birthday, Earth Observatory is revisiting stories about the landscapes that helped shape U.S. history. The images and text on this page were originally published on February 17, 2025. Explore the full collection here.
George Washington was born in 1732 on his family’s tobacco plantation at Popes Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Three years later, he moved up the Potomac River to Little Hunting Creek Plantation, a property later renamed Mount Vernon. The riverside property, approximately 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Washington, D.C., was central to the man who became the first U.S. president.
Though the family soon moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia, and resided there for much of his youth, Washington began managing the Mount Vernon property in 1759, soon after his marriage to Martha Dandridge. Washington’s letters make clear that he cherished and longed for this place during his long absences as a surveyor, military commander, and politician—a location he called the most “pleasantly situated” estate in the United States. It was where he helped raise two stepchildren, four step-grandchildren, and an array of crops and livestock. It was also where he was laid to rest in 1799 at the age of 67.
The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured this image of Mount Vernon and its surroundings on August 25, 2024. While much of the land surrounding the estate has been developed into things like suburban neighborhoods, shopping areas, and military bases, fragments of the pristine forests, farmland, and riverscapes that Washington would recognize remain.
In a 1793 letter to Arthur Young, an English agricultural expert and reformer, Washington expounded on the virtues of Mount Vernon’s land.
It lyes in a high, dry & healthy country, 300 miles by water from the Sea—and, as you will see by the plan, on one of the finest Rivers in the world. Its margin is washed by more than ten miles of tidewater; from the bed of which, and the enumerable coves, inlets & small marshes with which it abounds, an inexhaustable fund of rich mud may be drawn as a manure; either to be used seperately, or in a compost.
Toward the end of his life, Washington’s land holdings extended across five farms centered on Mount Vernon. The map below, based on one of Washington’s drawings, shows their layout. The Mansion House Farm encompassed Mount Vernon, with Union Farm and Dogue Run Farm to the west. Muddy Hole Farm lay to the north and River Farm to the east.
Washington was known as an innovative landowner who, with the labor of hundreds of enslaved people, took unusual care to manage his crops sustainably. For instance, he shifted much of his production to wheat and corn and started experimenting with a seven-year crop rotation system and cover crops to better preserve the health of his soil after realizing that growing tobacco depleted its fertility.
While most crops were raised at the outlying farms, Mount Vernon’s gardens were showcases for visitors and laboratories for experimentation. The showy upper garden was a formal garden near the mansion with carefully trimmed dwarf boxwood hedges and a heated greenhouse with lemons, oranges, and rare plants.
Closer to the river was the lower garden, a kitchen garden brimming with vegetables, and a small garden that Washington called “my botanick garden,” where he spent much of his time experimenting with new varieties. Even closer to the river was the fruit garden, an experimental orchard where the estate raised pears, cherries, peaches, and apples. This may have been the source of the centuries-old preserved cherries that archaeologists unearthed in Mount Vernon’s cellar in 2024.
The lands connecting the five farms—his “wilderness,” Washington called it—were a forested area where he often spent time hunting and fishing. Species such as oak, hickory, and heath shrubs dominated the forests in Washington’s time. Dozens of the same plant species from that period are still found on the estate’s forests in modern times, though large numbers of non-native species have established themselves as well.
One of the larger open spaces visible in the Landsat image above is Fort Hunt Park. Once part of Washington’s River Farm, Fort Hunt was constructed in 1897 to bolster Washington D.C.’s defenses during a period of heightened tensions with Spain. Across the Potomac River stands Fort Washington Park, home to ruins of a fort that was used to defend the city during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War.
Across the river in Maryland lies another property with a connection to George and Martha Washington. National Colonial Farm in Piscataway Park was established in 1958 to preserve the couple’s beloved views across the Potomac. Today, National Colonial Farm is a living farm museum and features several 18th-century heirloom varieties of herbs, flowers, and vegetables, including “Orinoco” tobacco, red May wheat, and Virginia white gourdseed corn.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Map of Washington’s farm courtesy of the Library of Congress. Story by Adam Voiland.
This image released on June 26, 2026, features the globular cluster NGC 6723, sometimes called the Chandelier Cluster. Like its namesake, it sparkles with countless lights. However, each ‘lightbulb’ in this chandelier is an individual star 27,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius (the Archer).
Globular clusters like NGC 6723 contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. These clusters have ages that often exceed 10 billion years old, and some are nearly as old as the universe itself. Astronomers think globular clusters are some of the first structures that formed in our galaxy, coalescing potentially billions of years before the thin disk of stars in which our Sun orbits. The details of how globular clusters formed, however, are not yet certain.
Astronauts Prepare to Exit Station for Robotics Repair Spacewalk
NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir pose for their official portraits at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
NASA
Live coverage is underway as two NASA astronauts prepare for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 8:35 a.m. EDT and last roughly six and a half hours.
Watch NASA’s live U.S. spacewalk 95 coverage on NASA+, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir will exit the station’s Quest airlock to replace a wrist joint that malfunctioned during normal Canadarm2 operations on May 27 after the arm drew elevated motor current and did not move as expected. NASA worked with CSA to understand the issue and determined a spacewalk was required to replace the joint using a spare already aboard the space station. Repairs to robotics, like Canadarm2, are normal and expected after more than 25 years of continuous operations, as the system was designed with replaceable components and planned maintenance in mind.
Williams will serve as spacewalk crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Meir will serve as crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. This spacewalk will be the second for Williams and the fifth for Meir. It also will be the 280th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
Pictured left to right: Sungshin Choi, Yi-Chun Chen, Emma Yates, Eduardo Bendek
The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Sungshin Choi, Yi-Chun Chen, Emma Yates, Eduardo Bendek. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and collaborative disposition needed to explore this world and beyond.
Space Biosciences Star: Sungshin Choi
Sungshin Choi is a Project Scientist with Amentum in the Space Biosciences Division. Sungshin is recognized for her enduring support of many space biology flight investigations past, present and future, including CBIOMES, ODYSSEY, and Space Algae II more recently. She is a tireless advocate for high-quality science and the principal investigators whom she represents.
Space Biosciences Star: Yi-Chun Chen
Yi-Chun Chen is a Project Scientist with Amentum in the Space Biosciences Division. Yi-Chun is recognized for her exemplary support of multiple space biology activities including the MeF1, GEARS, and ELISA MABL (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay – Microgravity Associated Bone Loss) flight investigations. She is a dedicated and determined problem-solver that enables her teams to achieve success.
Emma Yates
Earth Science Star: Emma Yates
Emma Yates is a research scientist with the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in the Earth Science Division. She has been instrumental in advancing NASA’s Ozone Where We Live (OWWL) project by leading community engagement, citizen-science partnerships, and field deployments across California. Her efforts are expanding access to NASA science while building innovative community-based air quality monitoring networks that support Earth science research and public engagement.
Space Science Star: Eduardo Bendek
Eduardo Bendek is an optical scientist with the SETI Institute in the Astrophysics Branch in the Space Science and Astrobiology Division. In support of the Ames Coronagraph Testbed (ACT), Eduardo developed several options for ACT first light experiments, reviewed them with various stakeholders, and delivered a comprehensive presentation to project management for how to proceed. Eduardo’s excellent support of the ACT project is critical to its success as Ames develops this near-infrared testbed for the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
