Astronauts Randy Bresnik and Mark Vande Hei exited the International Space Station airlock Tuesday for the second of three spacewalks planned this month.
The spacewalking duo switched their spacesuits to internal battery power at 7:56 a.m. EDT (1156 GMT) to begin the planned six-and-a-half hour excursion. Tuesday’s EVA is the fourth of Bresnik’s career, the second spacewalk for Vande Hei.
The astronauts will lubricate components of a new hand they installed on the space station’s Canadian-built robotic arm during an Oct. 5 spacewalk. Bresnik and Vande Hei will also replace a camera outside the orbiting outpost that is currently producing video with a pink hue, and they will replace a lens cover on another camera and conduct several other maintenance tasks.
A third spacewalk in the series is scheduled Oct. 18 by Bresnik and station flight engineer Joe Acaba.
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