NASA Astronauts Use GoPro Hero to Film Outer Space; Watch Stunning SpaceWalk Video
NASA astronauts used a GoPro camera to show what it's like to work outside the International Space Station(ISS), and the film they captured is stunning.
Two NASA astronauts, Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Terry Virts, brought with them a GoPro camera as they ventured outside the ISS to fix the exterior of a satellite, according to Huffington Post. They literally captured an out-of-this-world footage as they completed an extravehicular activity (EVA). The footage was uploaded by NASA last week and since then, the video has gone viral.
The astronauts captured two videos, one with the view of the earth from the space station and the other showing the station's cables, dishes, and panels, according to Time Magazine.
The video is stunning and you can watch one of the raw footages here:
NASA explained the EVA mission of the two astronauts in their website.
The two astronauts finished the second of their three-part spacewalk for the reconfiguration and optimisation of some external parts of the space station. This is in preparation for the arrival and support of "future commercial crew vehicles."
The post explains that the ISS will not be using the berthing process they normally use to attach cargo vehicles. "This is because the process of un-berthing takes a long time to complete, since cables and ducting between the visiting spacecraft and the ISS must first be manually disconnected, control boxes installed, hatches closed, and then the visiting spacecraft must be maneuverered away from the station with the robotic arm."
The main role of the commercial crew vehicles are "lifeboats," and berthing ports cannot support immediate evacuation should the need arrive.
The vehicles will instead be attached via docking - "whereby the visiting spacecraft flies itself all the way into its docking port and attaches via a capture ring striking a corresponding attachment mechanism."
In the future, NASA wants to employ a "taxi" model where they will open two docking ports in which two commercial crew vehicles can visit the space station. Right now, they only have the "rent-a-car" plan where only one vehicle can be at the ISS .
The spacewalk, EVA-30, last Wednesday was similar to EVA-29 as it involved cable work. EVA cabling is considered to be complicated which is why an entire spacewalk is needed for it, according to the post by NASA. The EVA ended at 18:34 UTC and the third and final EVA for the series will be on Sunday.