Video: NASA officials preview space station battery replacement spacewalks

Expedition 45 commander Scott Kelly and flight engineer Kjell Lindgren have switched their spacesuits to battery power to begin planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Wednesday outside the International Space Station.

Japan’s space agency has set Sept. 30 as the target launch date for the country’s sixth resupply mission to the International Space Station, carrying cargo, experiments and six lithium-ion batteries to kick off a major upgrade of the lab’s electrical system.

Two Russian cosmonauts used the International Space Station’s Poisk docking compartment as an airlock for the first time Wednesday in a six-hour 48-minute spacewalk to begin preparing the nearly identical Pirs module for removal next year. A new laboratory module will be parked in its place later.