December 22, 2013

Astronaut Rick Mastracchio outside the International Space Station during the spacewalk performed with his colleague Mike Hopkins (Image NASA TV)

Yesterday, Expedition 38 astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins completed the first spacewalk, in technical terms extravehicular activity (EVA), to repair the cooling system of the International Space Station. This first phase lasted “only” 5 hours and 28 minutes, which is a short time for an operation of that kind since the two have ended it an hour earlier than expected.