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NASA astronauts\u00a0Mike Hopkins<\/a> and Victor Glover<\/a>\u00a0concluded their spacewalk at 1:16 p.m. EST, after 5 hours and 20 minutes. In the second spacewalk of the year, the two NASA astronauts completed work to replace batteries that provide power for the station\u2019s solar arrays and upgrade several of the station\u2019s external cameras. The duo finished their planned tasks ahead of schedule and also complete several get-ahead tasks in preparation for future spacewalks.<\/p>\n This spacewalk completes a four-year effort<\/a> to upgrade the batteries of the International Space Station<\/a>\u2019s power system, replacing 48 aging nickel-hydrogen batteries with 24 new lithium-ion batteries and adapter plates. With the battery work complete, the focus turns to solar array augmentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two additional spacewalks are planned for the near future. During the next spacewalk, Glover and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins will work outside the station to prepare its power system for the\u00a0installation of new solar arrays\u00a0to increase the station\u2019s existing power supply. For a following spacewalk, Rubins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi will continue upgrading station components. NASA will air a briefing and preview of the next two spacewalks after the dates are set.<\/p>\n This was the fourth spacewalk in Hopkins\u2019 career, and the second for Glover.<\/p>\n Hopkins has now spent a total of 25 hours and 14 minutes spacewalking. Glover now has spent a total of 12 hours and 16 minutes spacewalking.<\/p>\n Space station crew members have conducted\u00a0234 spacewalks<\/a>\u00a0in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 61 days, 7 hours, and 7 minutes working outside the station.<\/p>\n Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog<\/a>, @space_station<\/a> and @ISS_Research<\/a> on Twitter as well as the\u00a0ISS Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ISS Instagram<\/a>\u00a0accounts.<\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n Mark Garcia <\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA astronauts\u00a0Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover\u00a0concluded their spacewalk at 1:16 p.m. EST, after 5 hours and 20 minutes. In the second spacewalk of the year, the two NASA astronauts completed work to replace batteries that provide power for the station\u2019s solar arrays and upgrade several of the station\u2019s external cameras. The duo finished their planned \u2026 Continue reading