The space step will help continue upgrades for the orbital laboratory.
Rubins just had a spacewalk on Sunday with fellow NASA astronaut Victor Glover Jr. Prior to that, her previous two spaceships took place during her first rotation on the space station in 2016.
Noguchi had to wait a little longer to add a fourth spacewalk in his career. He previously made three spacewalks during his shuttle flight in 2005 to help repair the space station.
Rubins is crew member 1 in the red striped suit and Noguchi is crew member 2 in the striped suit. The new high-definition helmet camera on Rubin’s suit offers crystal clear views of the astronaut’s perspective as she works outside the space station.
Rubins and Glover began preparations for upcoming solar power upgrades by assembling and installing adaptation kits on Sunday. While the station’s current solar power plants are still functioning well, they are degrading. The deterioration is expected because they only have a lifespan of about 15 years and were installed in December 2000. They have, so to speak, exceeded the guarantee.
Brand new solar power plants will be placed in front of six of the arrays currently at the station later this year, increasing the station’s power from 160 kilowatts to 215 kilowatts, according to NASA. The solar power plants will start in June with a SpaceX vehicle to the space station.
Rubins and Noguchi will complete the adaptation of the solar plant packages on Friday before moving on to other tasks, including the venting of ammonia used in the space station’s thermal control system to reduce the risk of release into the ISS atmosphere.
This is the 236th spacewalk in the history of the station.