Thomas Pesquet back in space

Eva Deschamps / June 20, 2021

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet began a new spacewalk on Sunday, to complete the installation with his American teammate Shane Kimbrough of new solar panels, intended to increase the energy production capacity of the International Space Station (ISS).

This is the fourth spacewalk of Thomas Pesquet, and the second during this mission.

At 11:42 GMT, the two men switched on the internal battery of their suit, then opened the hatch of the ISS decompression chamber.

Thomas Pesquet went out into the void first, followed by his teammate.

Spacewalk, episode 2, Another long but incredible day ahead with Shane Kimbrough, tweeted the Frenchman a few hours before the start of the mission.

The latter is intended to install six new generation solar panels, called iROSA on the ISS.

Wednesday, the two mechanics had begun the installation of the first one. But the mission had been troubled by several setbacks, in particular because of concerns about the suit of Shane Kimbrough.

We will return to the vacuum of space to finish the work of the 1st exit (deployment of the 1st solar panel) and to install the 2nd, said Thomas Pesquet on social networks.

This is the fourth time the two astronauts have floated together in zero gravity, having already performed two side-by-side spacewalks in 2017, clinging to the Space Station hurtling 400 kilometers above Earth, and one Wednesday.

This is the 240th spacewalk in the history of the ISS.