Watch: Timelapse of astronauts installing solar array on the ISS

On 16 June current year, the ISS astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbrough went on a spacewalk. They were on a mission to install a new solar array for the ISS, and they were even caught on camera from Earth (kind of). But if you’d like to get a closer look at the recent spacewalk, ESA has announced two timelapse videos showing the two astronauts in action.

Pesquet and Kimbrough first had to take the arrays from their storage area outside the Space Station. They were then passed from spacewalker to spacewalker to the worksite, as ESA explains. At the worksite, the astronauts had to secure the arrays, unfold them, connect them, and finally unfurl them.

ESA writes that the mission didn’t go without some trouble.

“During the spacewalk a small technical problem in Shane’s spacesuit required him to return to the airlock and restart his Display and Control Module. This module provides astronauts with continuous information on pressure, temperature and other vital data during a spacewalk.”

Thankfully, the restart was successful and Kimbrough was in no danger. Still, this little “hiccup” delayed the astronauts’ work and they couldn’t finish it when planned. Therefore, they had to take another spacewalk on 20 June to finish what they’d started.

In the first video above, you can see a part of the first spacewalk. Thomas Pesquet was being moved on the robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Megan McArthur was at the controls. The second video shows the second spacewalk Pesqurt and Kimbrough took on 20 June. As they waited for the night to arrive, Shane’s helmet lights and camera partially detached from his helmet, ESA explains. But Pesquet went full DIY and used some wire to successfully reattach them as a temporary fix. Thankfully, there were no bigger issues this time and the second spacewalk was successfully finished after six hours and 28 minutes. JAXA astronaut and ISS commander Aki Hoshide took the photos for both timelapse videos.

[via DPReview]