Astronauts prepare for spacewalk to upgrade ISS power system

Following the successful delivery of the SpaceX Dragon craft, four members of Expedition 69 are getting ready for a spacewalk to install the solar array that was to enhance the International Space Station's (ISS) power system.

Three cosmonauts are working simultaneously to maintain the effectiveness of the station's operations while doing heart and plasma research.

Before today's spacewalk to continue enhancing the power generation system of the ISS, four Expedition 69 astronauts are completing their last preparations.

The three cosmonauts of the orbital outpost worked to maintain the station's systems while concentrating on plasma physics and cardiac research, SciTech Daily reported.

Nasa Flight Engineers Woody Hoburg and Stephen Bowen will switch their spacesuits' extravehicular mobility units (EMUs) to battery power at 9:15 am EDT on Friday to start a spacewalk to install a roll-out solar array on the station's starboard truss structure.

The two prepared their EMUs and spacewalking equipment inside the Quest airlock, where they will leave the space station and enter the vacuum of space, ahead of the spacewalk.

For a final review of their spacewalking activities and robotic assistance protocols, the two astronauts were joined by Flight Engineers Frank Rubio of Nasa and Sultan Alneyadi of the UAE.

On Friday, Bowen and Hoburg will receive assistance from within the station from Rubio and Alneyadi, the report said.

Ground engineers on Wednesday remotely commanded the Canadarm2 robotic arm to remove solar arrays from Dragon and attach them to trusses for Friday's  installation spacewalk.

Furthermore, Commander Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Petelin collaborated to explore the effects of weightlessness on the human heart.

Later, Prokopyev detached the equipment that had been used to examine electrically charged microparticles like electrons, ions, and neutral gases in a plasma. Petelin looked at techniques to enhance communication with global mission controllers and overseas crews.

Meanwhile, flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev worked on computer and power system maintenance.