The first of the pair of National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA spacewalks concluded successfully.
International Space Station Astronauts Commander 45 Expedition Scott Kelly, Expedition 45 commander and Kjell Lindgren, flight engineer, both spacewalk first-timers completed most of their respective tasks 250 miles above the Earth.
The US Quest airlock repressurization ended the seven-hour and 16-minute Oct. 28 NASA spacewalk at 3:19 p.m. EDT. The two astronauts put a thermal cover on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, greased several components in a latching end of Canadarm2 robotic arm.
They rigged data system cables and power to the station for future installation of a docking port when the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Boeing Starline CST-100 come.
The greasing took longer than expected and they forego lubrication of a component. The work they completed satisfied the engineers and it brought performance improvement of the latching end effector. The reinstallation of a valve will be assigned to future spacewalks.
Both astronauts will work on the station again on Nov. 6.
As of Oct. 29, Kelly is the astronaut who lived in space the longest on a single spaceflight. On Nov. 2, the ISS crew celebrate the 15th year of continuous presence of humans in space aboard the ISS.
It was the first for Kelly and Lindgren to conduct their first-ever NASA spacewalks, as they were dangling by cords from the ISS as it dashes around the Earth for more than 17,000 miles per hour. Earth was visible below them while both astronauts maneuvered equipment and tools in zero gravity.
NASA at mission control in Houston were with them all throughout, giving suggestions and comments.
Spacewalks are meticulously scripted even before astronauts go to ISS. They were rehearsed repeatedly in a pool the size of two space shuttles. It is because one small deviation from the plan, or a single mistake, can be disastrous.
According to The Atlantic, there is lack of better word to describe spacewalk - "awesome." As Charles Fishman wrote for the site:
"Nothing captures the strange contradictions of modern spaceflight as well as spacewalking-shoving off into space with only your wits and training, sealed into your one-person spacecraft. An EVA (extravehicular activity) is, for almost all astronauts, the ultimate professional challenge and the ultimate thrill ride. When you're outside the station, you are literally an independent astronomical body, a tiny moon of Earth, orbiting at 17,500 miles an hour. When you look at Earth between your boots, that first step is more than 1 million feet down."
