Spacewalking by Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbrae

On Wednesday, June 16 at 2 p.m., astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbra will blast off on a mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), in their suits, in the vacuum of space. They will spend more than six hours there. the challenge? Installing a new solar panel on the International Space Station, says the world, which indicates that they will be strongly connected to the station by cable, which rules out any possibility of a “Gravity” disaster scenario.

Why are we talking about it. What could be more indicative of the conquest of space than a spacewalk? Today, the process has become almost routine. On the International Space Station alone, more than 230 sorties have already been carried out, with a total time spent in space of nearly 1,500 hours. Here, the exit promises to be complicated: the French and Americans will have to recover the new solar panels delivered by the cargo ship, weighing 350 kg, and deployed to a length of more than 19 meters, at the other end of the station. . High fidelity choreography, but also a marathon, which they will have to accomplish with uncomfortable diving suits.