Sciences. Thomas Pesquet returns to the International Space Station after his spacewalk

For the second time this week, astronaut Thomas Pesquet left the decompression chamber of the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday as part of an extravehicular activity (EVA). He returned safely to the International Space Station at 8:10 p.m., after more than six hours in space.

This is Thomas Bisquet’s fourth spaceflight, led by fellow American Shane Kimbrae. At 1:42 p.m., he and Shane Kimbra powered the suit’s internal battery and opened the hatch to the decompression chamber on the International Space Station. The French astronaut was the first to go through the decompression chamber.

Objective: to install solar panels

This was the 240th flight in the history of the International Space Station. Also on Wednesday, for the two astronauts, the goal was to install advanced solar panels outside the International Space Station, in order to increase their energy-producing capabilities.

At 6:28 a.m., the astronauts finished laying, repairing, attaching, and deploying a first-generation 19-meter solar panel, and began installing a second solar panel. The Mechanics began installing the first solar panel on Wednesday. But the expedition faced several setbacks, including concerns about Shane Kimbrough’s suit.

After an intermittent assignment on Wednesday

NASA teams noticed an outage in data transmission to check the condition of his suit, as well as a sudden increase in pressure in his cooling system.

Shane Kimbrough should have gone back to the station’s airlock and put it back on. Then the two astronauts moved the solar panel, folding itself into a large roll weighing 350 kilograms, to the place where it would be installed. They grabbed it and tried to spread it, but the alignment problem interfered with the mechanism, and prevented it from spreading.

New release on June 25

NASA plans a spacewalk on Friday, June 25, for the couple to complete the installation of a second solar panel. Thomas Pesquet now calculates 26 hours and 15 minutes of spacewalking.