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Astronauts Ready for Tuesday Spacewalk to Repair Canadarm2 Robotic Arm

NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir, both Expedition 74 flight engineers, inspect and configure a spacesuit jetpack, known as the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER), inside the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory module. The jetpacks attach to the rear of spacesuits and serve as a safety mechanism that allows a spacewalker to maneuver back to the station in the unlikely event they become untethered from their worksite.
NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir are pictured inspecting and configuring a spacesuit jetpack preparing for their first spacewalk together on March 9, 2026.
NASA/Chris Williams

The Expedition 74 astronauts are ready for a spacewalk on Tuesday following the completion of spacesuit configurations and procedure reviews on Monday. The International Space Station’s three cosmonauts kept busy throughout the day servicing Roscosmos scientific, electronics, and life support systems.

Mission managers have given the final go for  NASA flight engineers Chris Williams and Jessica Meir to begin a spacewalk at 8:35 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 30. Williams and Meir will work in the vacuum of space for about six hours and 40 minutes and replace a malfunctioning wrist joint on the Canadarm2 robotic arm that was installed on the orbital outpost on April 26, 2001. This will be the duo’s second spacewalk together. NASA+ will begin its live coverage at 7 a.m. EDT on June 30.

Williams and Meir spent Monday organizing spacewalking tools and checking spacesuits inside the Quest airlock where they will exit the space station for the robotics maintenance job. Flight engineers Jack Hathaway of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) assisted the upcoming spacewalkers with the tool work and studied the delicate maneuvers they will use to position the Canadarm2 for its repair job. Hathaway and Adenot will monitor the spacewalkers on Tuesday, help them in and out of their suits, and carefully maneuver Canadarm2 into position for repair access. All four astronauts gathered together at the end of Monday’s shift for a final procedures review and a readiness conference with specialists on the ground.

In the Roscosmos segment of the orbiting laboratory, station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov swapped out electronics gear then photographed windows inside the Zvezda and Poisk modules for analysis. The two-time station resident also joined the astronauts for a portion of their spacewalk procedure reviews.

Flight engineer Sergei Mikaev kicked off his shift charging batteries and checking cable connections. Afterward, Mikaev tested the activation of atmospheric purification valves, checked the condition of lights in the Zarya module, and filled out a questionnaire documenting his experience with international crews and flight controllers from around the world.

Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev replaced a computer hard drive inside scientific hardware that measures the radiation environment the space station experiences while orbiting Earth. Next, Fedyaev wrapped up his shift with orbital plumbing in the Nauka science module and ventilation system maintenance in the Zvezda service module.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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