Astronaut's helmet-cam gives spectacular view of Earth during spacewalk
Footage shot by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson
You couldn't ask for a better office view.
On March 30, NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough conducted a seven-hour spacewalk roughly 400 kilometres above Earth at the International Space Station (ISS).
Whitson recorded the arduous day at work on her helmet-cam, including the accidental loss of a vital piece of shielding for the space station.
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The pair were reconnecting wires and electrical connections for the pressurized mating adapter at the Harmony module and installed a shield and covers for the berthing mechanism port on Tranquility.
During the spacewalk, a shield was inadvertently lost — you can see it drifting away in the video. There is no danger to astronauts or spacecraft.
Mission control quickly devised a plan to use a shield that had been removed earlier, which now provides protection against micrometeroid debris, a hazard in space.