NASA astronaut Steve Bowen and his United Arab Emirates counterpart Sultan Alneyadi are making final preparations for a spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, April 28.
Alneyadi will be making history as he emerges from the ISS as this will be the first spacewalk by an Arab astronaut.
“Being chosen as the first Arab astronaut to undertake a spacewalk … is a great honor and responsibility,” Alneyadi tweeted earlier this month. He added that he was looking forward to representing his country and continuing “the exceptional journey started by generations of astronauts before me.”
Bowen, meanwhile, will be embarking on his eighth spacewalk, although his last one was 12 years ago during another mission.
Both men, pictured below, arrived at the orbital outpost on March 3 together with NASA astronaut Warren Hoburg and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Two astronauts work health checks and tool preps ahead of Friday's spacewalk as the rest of the Exp 69 crew conducts advanced @ISS_Research and lab maintenance today. https://t.co/JjAmqOc1pI
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) April 26, 2023
Bowen and Alneyadi will exit the station’s Quest airlock and then work on preparing for the future installation of upgraded solar arrays on the starboard side of the station’s truss.
Four of the new arrays have already been installed in earlier spacewalks, and two additional arrays will be mounted to the installed platforms during future excursions, NASA said.
The astronauts will also collect S-band antenna equipment and bring it back into the ISS for refurbishment.
What to expect
The live stream will include footage from multiple cameras, some of them attached to the astronauts themselves so that you can witness them performing their work at close quarters.
The broadcast will also carry the audio feeds of both astronauts and their colleagues back at Mission Control.
A NASA commentator, too, will describe to the audience what the astronauts are doing each step of the way.
You should also keep an eye out for some awesome views of Earth 250 miles below.
How to watch
NASA will provide live coverage of the spacewalk, with its live stream set to begin at 7:45 a.m. ET on Friday, April 28.
The spacewalk itself is scheduled to start at about 9:15 a.m. ET, and last around 6.5 hours. For easy identification during the spacewalk, Bowen will wear a suit featuring red stripes, while Alneyadi will wear an unmarked suit.
You can watch the spacewalk via the player at the top of this page, or by heading to NASA’s YouTube channel, which will carry the same feed.
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