On the International Space Station, Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA floated outside the Quest airlock for a spacewalk to complete half of the work involved to swap out nickel-hydrogen batteries on the stationâs truss with new lithium-ion batteries. Kimbrough and Whitson installed adapter plates on the truss and hooked up electrical cables as part of a complex robotics and spacewalk plan to shore up the stationâs power supply for the future. It was the third spacewalk of Kimbroughâs career and the seventh for Whitson, who equaled the mark for most spacewalks by a woman previously set by NASAâs Suni Williams. Kimbrough will venture outside the station again on Jan. 13 with Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) to continue and complete the battery work.
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