British Astronaut Tim Peake Prepares To Make A Historic Spacewalk Outside The International Space Station To Repair A Faulty Power Unit

Astronaut Tim Peake (pictured in his space suit) is set to become the first Briton to conduct a spacewalk today. But he and fellow astronaut Tim Kopra will face a race against the clock to repair a power unit

Tim Peake will conduct Britain's first spacewalk to repair a faulty power unit, known as a Sequential Shunt Unit. He will have to pull himself along the outside of the space station carrying a spare and with the help of his colleague Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra, will replace the faulty unit with the new one (illustrated)

ADVERTISEMENT

They must conduct the repair while the ISS is on the dark side of the Earth so they are not harmed by sparks that could fly from the space station's solar arrays if they are producing power from sunlight.

Writing on Twitter from orbit on Thursday night, the European Space Agency astronaut said: 'Popping outside for a walk tomorrow. Exhilarated - but no time to dwell on emotions'

The pair (pictured above) have just 31 minutes to install a new sequential shunt unit (SSU) under the cover of darkness to ensure they are not harmed by sparks that could fly from the ISS' solar arrays

The site they are trying to reach is 'about as far along the space station that you can go from the airlock', or around 200 feet (61 metres). The large circle shows the site of the SSU and the smaller one, the airlock

Astronaut Scott Kelly, who is nearing the end of his year-long stay on the ISS tweeted about the spacewalk, including a beautiful shot of the Earth below. He said the 'UK will have a new star out there'

Major Peake will conduct the first spacewalk of 2016. Last month he helped to support two Nasa astronauts last month as they performed an emergency spacewalk to unjam a railcar on the outside of the space station (pictured). He helped them put on their spacesuits and provided vital contact from inside the space station

The spacewalk will happen in darkness so the astronauts won't be at risk from sparking when the ISS' solar panels. This image of darkness and a distant sunrise was taken by Major Peake from within the safety of the ISS

It's thought Major Peake's wife, Rebecca will watch the spacewalk outside of the UK, possibly at Nasa in Houston, Texas. She shared a sweet Tweet (above) showing the concern of one of Major Peake's sons for the astronaut 

ADVERTISEMENT

After a stuck brake handle stalled a railcar outside of the ISS, two astronauts set out on a 'spacewalk,'before Christmas to repair the car in time for an upcoming docking. In under an hour, Nasa's Commander Scott Kelly and flight engineer Timothy Kopra were able to release the brake handles by hitting it twice

Source: DAILYMAIL UK