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By NASA
Radioisotope Power Systems RPS Home About About RPS About the Program About Plutonium-238 Safety and Reliability For Mission Planners Contact Systems Overview Power Systems Thermal Systems Dynamic Radioisotope Power Missions Overview Timeline News Resources STEM Overview Power to Explore Contest Kid-Friendly Videos FAQ 5 Min Read After 60 Years, Nuclear Power for Spaceflight is Still Tried and True
Workers install one of three Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) on the Cassini spacecraft. More › Credits:
NASA Editor’s Note: Originally published on June 21, 2021.
Six decades after the launch of the first nuclear-powered space mission, Transit IV-A, NASA is embarking on a bold future of human exploration and scientific discovery. This future builds on a proud history of safely launching and operating nuclear-powered missions in space.
“Nuclear power has opened the solar system to exploration, allowing us to observe and understand dark, distant planetary bodies that would otherwise be unreachable. And we’re just getting started,” said Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Future nuclear power and propulsion systems will help revolutionize our understanding of the solar system and beyond and play a crucial role in enabling long-term human missions to the Moon and Mars.”
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Space nuclear power to explore the deepest, dustiest, darkest, and most distant regions of our solar system and beyond. NASA From Humble Beginnings: Nuclear Power Spawns an Age of Scientific Discovery
On June 29, 1961, the John’s Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory launched the Transit IV-A Spacecraft. It was a U.S. Navy navigational satellite with a SNAP-3B radioisotope powered generator producing 2.7 watts of electrical power — about enough to light an LED bulb. Transit IV-A broke an APL mission-duration record and confirmed the Earth’s equator is elliptical. It also set the stage for ground-breaking missions that have extended humanity’s reach across the solar system.
Since 1961, NASA has flown more than 25 missions carrying a nuclear power system through a successful partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), which provides the power systems and plutonium-238 fuel.
“The department and our national laboratory partners are honored to play a role in powering NASA’s space exploration activities,” said Tracey Bishop, deputy assistant secretary in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. “Radioisotope Power Systems are a natural extension of our core mission to create technological solutions that meet the complex energy needs of space research, exploration, and innovation.”
There are only two practical ways to provide long-term electrical power in space: the light of the sun or heat from a nuclear source.
We couldn’t do the mission without it. No other technology exists to power a mission this far away from the Sun, even today.
Alan Stern
Principal Investigator, NASA’s New Horizons Mission to Pluto and Beyond
“As missions move farther away from the Sun to dark, dusty, and harsh environments, like Jupiter, Pluto, and Titan, they become impossible or extremely limited without nuclear power,” said Leonard Dudzinski, chief technologist for NASA’s Planetary Science Division and program executive for Radioisotope Power.
That’s where Radioisotope Power Systems, or RPS, come in. They are a category of power systems that convert heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 fuel into electricity.
“These systems are reliable and efficient,” said June Zakrajsek, manager for NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program office at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “They operate continuously over long-duration space missions regardless of sunlight, temperature, charged particle radiation, or surface conditions like thick clouds or dust. They’ve allowed us to explore from the Sun to Pluto and beyond.”
RPS powered the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package. They’ve sustained Voyager 1 and 2 since 1977, and they kept Cassini-Huygens’ instruments warm as it explored frigid Saturn and its moon Titan.
Today, a Multi-Mission Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) powers the Perseverance rover, which is captivating the nation as it searches for signs of ancient life on Mars, and a single RTG is sustaining New Horizons as it ventures on its way out of the solar system 15 years after its launch.
“The RTG was and still is crucial to New Horizons,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute. “We couldn’t do the mission without it. No other technology exists to power a mission this far away from the Sun, even today.”
New Horizons carries seven scientific instruments and a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. The spacecraft weighs 1,060 pounds. NASA/JHUAPL Great Things to Come: Science and Human Exploration
Dragonfly, which is set to launch in 2028, is the next mission with plans to use an MMRTG. Part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, Dragonfly is an octocopter designed to explore and collect samples on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, an ocean world with a dense, hazy atmosphere.
“RPS is really an enabling technology,” said APL’s Zibi Turtle, principal investigator for the upcoming Dragonfly mission. “Early missions like Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini that relied on RPS have completely changed our understanding and given us a geography of the distant solar system…Cassini gave us our first close-up look at the surface of Titan.”
According to Turtle, the MMRTG serves two purposes on Dragonfly: power output to charge the lander’s battery and waste heat to keep its instruments and electronics warm.
“Flight is a very high-power activity. We’ll use a battery for flight and science activities and recharge the battery using the MMRTG,” said Turtle. “The waste heat from the power system is a key aspect of our thermal design. The surface of Titan is very cold, but we can keep the interior of the lander warm and cozy using the heat from the MMRTG.”
As the scientific community continues to benefit from RPS, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is investing in new technology using reactors and low-enriched uranium fuel to enable a robust human presence on the Moon and eventually human missions to Mars.
Astronauts will need plentiful and continuous power to survive the long lunar nights and explore the dark craters on the Moon’s South Pole. A fission surface power system could provide enough juice to power robust operations. NASA is leading an effort, working with the DOE and industry to design a fission power system for a future lunar demonstration that will pave the way for base camps on the Moon and Mars.
NASA has also thought about viable ways to reduce the time it takes to travel to Mars, including nuclear propulsion systems.
As NASA advances its bold vision of exploration and scientific discovery in space, it benefits from 60 years of the safe use of nuclear power during spaceflight. Sixty years of enlightenment that all started with a little satellite called Transit IV-A.
News Media Contact
Jan Wittry
NASA’s Glenn Research Center
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By NASA
On Oct. 18, 1989, space shuttle Atlantis took off on its fifth flight, STS-34, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Its five-person crew of Commander Donald E. Williams, Pilot Michael J. McCulley, and Mission Specialists Shannon W. Lucid, Franklin R. Chang-Díaz, and Ellen S. Baker flew a five-day mission that deployed the Galileo spacecraft, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, to study Jupiter. The astronauts deployed Galileo and its upper stage on their first day in space, sending the spacecraft on its six-year journey to the giant outer planet. Following its arrival at Jupiter in December 1995, Galileo deployed its atmospheric probe while the main spacecraft entered orbit around the planet, studying it in great detail for eight years.
Left: The STS-34 crew of Mission Specialists Shannon W. Lucid, sitting left, Franklin R. Chang-Díaz, and Ellen S. Baker; Commander Donald E. Williams, standing left, and Pilot Michael J. McCulley. Middle: The STS-34 crew patch. Right: The Galileo spacecraft in Atlantis’ payload bay in preparation for STS-34.
In November 1988, NASA announced Williams, McCulley, Lucid, Chang-Díaz, and Baker as the STS-34 crew for the flight planned for October 1989. Williams and Lucid, both from the Class of 1978, had each flown once before, on STS-51D in April 1985 and STS-51G in June 1985, respectively. Chang-Díaz, selected in 1980, had flown once before on STS-61C in January 1986, while for McCulley and Baker, both selected in 1984, STS-34 represented their first spaceflight. During their five-day mission, the astronauts planned to deploy Galileo and its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) on the first flight day. Following the Galileo deployment, the astronauts planned to conduct experiments in the middeck and the payload bay.
Left: Voyager 2 image of Jupiter. Middle: Galileo as it appeared in 1983. Right: Illustration of Galileo’s trajectory from Earth to Jupiter.
Following the successful Pioneer and Voyager flyby missions, NASA’s next step to study Jupiter in depth involved an ambitious orbiter and atmospheric entry probe. NASA first proposed the Jupiter Orbiter Probe mission in 1975, and Congress approved it in 1977 for a planned 1982 launch on the space shuttle. In 1978, NASA renamed the spacecraft Galileo after the 17th century Italian astronomer who turned his new telescope toward Jupiter and discovered its four largest moons. Delays in the shuttle program and changes in the upper stage to send Galileo from low Earth orbit on to Jupiter resulted in the slip of its launch to May 1986, when on Atlantis’ STS-61G mission, a Centaur upper stage would send the spacecraft toward Jupiter.
The January 1986 Challenger accident not only halted shuttle flights for 31 months but also canceled the Centaur as an upper stage for the orbiter. Remanifested onto the less powerful IUS, Galileo would require gravity assist maneuvers at Venus and twice at Earth to reach its destination, extending the transit time to six years. Galileo’s launch window extended from Oct. 12 to Nov. 21, 1989, dictated by planetary alignments required for the gravity assists. During the transit, Galileo had the opportunity to pass by two main belt asteroids, providing the first closeup study of this class of objects. Upon arrival at Jupiter, Galileo would release its probe to return data as it descended through Jupiter’s atmosphere while the main spacecraft would enter an elliptical orbit around the planet, from which it would conduct in depth studies for a minimum of 22 months.
Left: The Galileo atmospheric probe during preflight processing. Middle: The Galileo orbiter during preflight processing. Right: Space shuttle Atlantis arrives at Launch Pad 39B.
The Galileo atmospheric probe arrived at KSC on April 17 and the main spacecraft on May 16, following which workers joined the two together for preflight testing. Meanwhile, Atlantis returned to KSC on May 15, following the STS-30 mission that deployed the Magellan spacecraft to Venus. The next day workers towed it into the Orbiter Processing Facility to prepare it for STS-34. In KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), workers began stacking the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) on June 15, completing the activity on July 22, and then adding the External Tank (ET) on July 30. Atlantis rolled over to the VAB on Aug. 22 for mating with the ET and SRBs. Galileo, now mated to its IUS, transferred to Launch Pad 39B on Aug. 25, awaiting Atlantis’ arrival four days later.
The next day, workers placed Galileo into Atlantis’ payload bay and began preparations for the Oct. 12 launch. The Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test took place on Sept. 14-15, with the astronauts participating in the final few hours as on launch day. A faulty computer aboard the IUS threatened to delay the mission, but workers replaced it without impacting the planned launch date. The five-member astronaut crew arrived at KSC Oct. 9 for final preparations for the flight and teams began the countdown for launch. A main engine controller problem halted the countdown at T minus 19 hours. The work required to replace it pushed the launch date back to Oct. 17. On that day, the weather at the pad supported a launch, but clouds and rain at the Shuttle Landing Facility several miles away, and later rain at a Transatlantic (TAL) abort site, violated launch constraints, so managers called a 24-hour scrub. The next day, the weather cooperated at all sites, and other than a brief hold to reconfigure Atlantis’ computers from one TAL site to another, the countdown proceeded smoothly.
Left: STS-34 astronauts pose following their Sept. 6 preflight press conference. Middle: Liftoff of Atlantis on the STS-34 mission. Right: Controllers in the Firing Room watch Atlantis take to the skies.
Atlantis lifted off Launch Pad 39B at 12:53 p.m. EDT on Oct. 18. As soon as the shuttle cleared the launch tower, control shifted to the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Ascent Flight Director Ronald D. Dittemore and his team of controllers, including astronaut Frank L. Culbertson serving as the capsule communicator, or capcom, monitored all aspects of the launch. Following main engine cutoff, Atlantis and its crew had achieved orbit. Forty minutes later, a firing of the two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines circularized the orbit at 185 miles. The astronauts removed their bulky Launch and Entry Suits (LES) and prepared Atlantis for orbital operations, including opening the payload bay doors.
Left: Galileo and its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) in Atlantis’ payload bay, just before deployment. Middle: Galileo and its IUS moments after deployment. Right: Galileo departs from the shuttle.
Preparations for Galileo’s deployment began shortly thereafter. In Mission Control, Flight Director J. Milton Heflin and his team, including capcom Michael A. Baker, took over to assist the crew with deployment operations. The astronauts activated Galileo and the IUS, and ground teams began checking out their systems, with the first TV from the mission showing the spacecraft and its upper stage in the payload bay. Lucid raised Galileo’s tilt table first to 29 degrees, McCulley oriented Atlantis to the deployment attitude, then Lucid raised the tilt table to the deploy position of 58 degrees. With all systems operating normally, Mission Control gave the go for deploy.
Six hours and 20 minutes into the mission, Lucid deployed the Jupiter-bound spacecraft and its upper stage, weighing a combined 38,483 pounds. “Galileo is on its way to another world,” Williams called down. The combination glided over the shuttle’s crew compartment. Williams and McCulley fired the two OMS engines to move Atlantis a safe distance away from the IUS burn that took place one hour after deployment, sending Galileo on its circuitous journey through the inner solar system before finally heading to Jupiter. The primary task of the mission accomplished, the astronauts prepared for their first night’s sleep in space.
STS-34 crew Earth observation photographs. Left: The Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex. Middle left: Jamaica. Middle right: Greece. Right: The greater Tokyo area with Mt. Fuji at upper left.
For the next three days, the STS-34 astronauts focused their attention on the middeck and payload bay experiments, as well as taking photographs of the Earth. Located in the payload bay, the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet experiment, managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, measured ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere and compared the results with data obtained by weather satellites at the same locations. The comparisons served to calibrate the weather satellite instruments. Baker conducted the Growth Hormone Concentrations and Distributions in Plants experiment, that investigated the effect of the hormone Auxin in corn shoot tissue. Three days into the mission, she placed plant canisters into a freezer to arrest plant growth and for postflight analysis. Chang-Díaz and Lucid had prime responsibility for the Polymer Morphology experiment, developed by the 3M Company. They used a laptop to control experiment parameters as the hardware melted different samples to see the effects of weightlessness. Baker conducted several medical investigations, including studying blood vessels in the retina, changes in leg volume due to fluid shifts, and carotid blood flow.
Left: The Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet experiment in Atlantis’ payload bay. Middle: Ellen S. Baker, right, performs a carotid blood flow experiment on Franklin R. Chang-Díaz. Right: Chang-Díaz describes the Polymer Mixing experiment.
Left: The STS-34 crew poses on Atlantis’ fight deck. Middle: Atlantis touches down at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Right: The STS-34 astronauts pose in front of Atlantis.
On Oct. 23, the astronauts awakened for their final day in space. Because of high winds expected at the primary landing site at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), managers moved the landing up by two revolutions. In preparation for reentry, the astronauts donned their orange LESs and closed the payload bay doors. Williams and McCulley oriented Atlantis into the deorbit attitude, with the OMS engines facing in the direction of travel. Over the Indian Ocean, they fired the two engines for 2 minutes 48 seconds to bring the spacecraft out of orbit. They reoriented the orbiter to fly with its heat shield exposed to the direction of flight as it encountered Earth’s atmosphere at 419,000 feet. The buildup of ionized gases caused by the heat of reentry prevented communications for about 15 minutes but provided the astronauts a great light show. The entry profile differed slightly from the planned one because Atlantis needed to make up 500 miles of cross range since it returned two orbits early. After completing the Heading Alignment Circle turn, Williams aligned Atlantis with the runway, and McCulley lowered the landing gear. Atlantis touched down and rolled to a stop, ending a 4-day 23-hour 39-minute flight, having completed 79 orbits of the Earth. Following postlanding inspections, workers placed Atlantis atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing-747, and the combination left Edwards on Oct. 28. Following refueling stops at Biggs Army Airfield in Texas and Columbus AFB in Mississippi, Atlantis and the SCA arrived back at KSC on Oct. 29. Workers began to prepare it for its next flight, STS-36 in February 1990.
Left: An illustration of Galileo in orbit around Jupiter. Right: Galileo’s major mission events, including encounters with Jupiter’s moons during its eight-year orbital study.
One hour after deployment from Atlantis, the IUS ignited to send Galileo on its six-year journey to Jupiter, with the spacecraft flying free of the rocket stage 47 minutes later. The spacecraft’s circuitous path took it first to Venus on Feb. 10, 1990, back to Earth on Dec. 8, 1990, and again on Dec. 8, 1992, each time picking up velocity from the gravity assist to send it on to the giant planet. Along the way, Galileo also passed by and imaged the main belt asteroids Gaspra and Ida and observed the crash of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 onto Jupiter. On Dec. 7, 1995, the probe plummeted through Jupiter’s dense atmosphere, returning data along the way, until it succumbed to extreme pressures and temperatures. Meanwhile, Galileo entered orbit around Jupiter and far exceeded its 22-month primary mission, finally plunging into the giant planet on Sept. 21, 2003, 14 years after leaving Earth. During its 35 orbits around Jupiter, it studied not only the planet but made close observations of many of its moons, especially its four largest ones, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, and Io.
Left: Galileo image of could formations on Jupiter. Right: Closeup image of terrain on Europa.
Of particular interest to many scientists, Galileo made 11 close encounters with icy Europa, coming as close as 125 miles, revealing incredible details about its surface. Based on Galileo data, scientists now believe a vast ocean lies beneath Europa’s icy crust, and heating from inside the moon may produce conditions favorable for supporting life. NASA’s Europa Clipper, launched on Oct. 14, 2024, hopes to expand on Galileo’s observations when it reaches Jupiter in April 2030.
Enjoy the crew narrated video of the STS-34 mission. Read Williams‘ recollections of the STS-34 mission in his oral history with the JSC History Office.
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By NASA
The fifth anniversary of the first all-female spacewalk by NASA astronauts Christina H. Koch and Jessica U. Meir seems like a good time to tell the story of women spacewalkers. Since the first woman stepped outside a spacecraft in 1984, 23 women from four nationalities have participated in 61 spacewalks. These women made significant contributions to their national and international programs, conducting pioneering work during their spacewalks. Their accomplishments include servicing of satellites, assembly and maintenance of space stations, conducting research, and testing new spacesuits. Since the first spacewalk performed by a woman in 1984, women have displayed their contributions in performing extravehicular activities and there has even been four all women spacewalks since then.
Table listing women with spacewalk experience.
As of Oct. 18, 2024, 79 women have flown in space, and 23 of them have donned spacesuits of different designs and stepped outside the relative comfort of their spacecraft to work in the harsh environment of open space. The various spacesuits, Russian Orlan, American Extravehicular Mobility Unit, Chinese Feitian-2, and SpaceX’s new design, all provide protection from the harsh environment, essentially turning the astronauts into individual spaceships. They all provide the crew members with the ability to carry out complicated tasks in open space.
Left: Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Y. Savitskaya during her historic spacewalk outside the Salyut 7 space station. Middle: NASA astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan during her historic spacewalk during STS-41G. Right: NASA astronaut Kathryn C. Thornton on her second spacewalk on STS-61.
Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Y. Savitskaya made history on July 17, 1984, as the first woman to make a second trip into space, on her second visit to the Salyut 7 space station. Savitskaya made history again on July 25 as the first woman to participate in a spacewalk. During the 3-hour 35-minute excursion, Savitskaya tested a multipurpose tool for electron beam cutting, welding, soldering, and brazing.
Less than three months later, on Oct. 11, NASA astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan completed the first spacewalk by an American woman from space shuttle Challenger during the STS-41G mission. Sullivan helped test the in-orbit transfer of hydrazine using the Orbital Refueling System. With Sally K. Ride as one of Sullivan’s crewmates, the flight marked the first time a space crew included two women.
NASA astronaut Kathryn C. Thornton completed her first spacewalk in 1992 during STS-49, the second American woman to walk in space. During this excursion, Thornton tested assembly techniques for the future space station. Thornton earned the recognition as the first woman to make more than one spacewalk when she completed two spacewalks on STS-61, the first mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Left: NASA astronaut Linda M. Godwin, the first woman to conduct a spacewalk at Mir during STS-76. Middle left: NASA astronaut Tamara E. Jernigan, the first woman to perform a spacewalk at the International Space Station during STS-96. Middle right: Expedition 2 NASA astronaut Susan J. Helms, the first female long-duration crew member to conduct a spacewalk during the STS-102 docked phase. Right: Godwin during STS-108, the first woman to complete spacewalks at Mir and the space station.
NASA astronaut Linda M. Godwin has the distinction as the first woman of any nationality to conduct a spacewalk at Mir. As a member of the STS-76 crew, on March 27, 1996, she took part in a 6-hour 2-minute spacewalk to install handrails and four space exposure experiments onto Mir’s Docking Module. Godwin returned to space on STS-108, and on Dec. 10, 2001, took part in a spacewalk lasting 4 hours 12 minutes to install insulation blankets on the space station, earning the title as the first woman to conduct spacewalks at both Mir and the space station.
NASA astronaut Tamara E. Jernigan conducted the first spacewalk by a woman at the embryonic International Space Station. On May 29, 1999, during STS-96, the second space station assembly flight, Jernigan participated in a 7-hour 55-minute spacewalk to install U.S. and Russian cargo cranes, foot restraints, and tool bags.
Expedition 2 NASA astronaut Susan J. Helms performed a spacewalk on March 11, 2001, during the STS-102 docked phase to relocate the Pressurized Mating Adaptor-3 (PMA-3) from Node 1’s nadir port to a berth on its port side, to enable the berthing of the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. This marked the first time a woman long-duration crew member performed a spacewalk. Its 8-hour 56-minute duration makes it the longest spacewalk in history.
A collage of NASA astronaut Peggy A. Whitson’s 10 spacewalks during space station Expeditions 5, 16, and 50/51.
As an Expedition 5 flight engineer, NASA astronaut Peggy A. Whitson participated in her first spacewalk on Aug. 16, 2002. Clad in an Orlan spacesuit and using the Pirs module airlock, she assisted in the installation of six debris shield panels on the Zvezda Service Module. Whitson completed her next five spacewalks, wearing Extravehicular Mobility Units and using the Quest airlock, as commander of Expedition 16, one of the busiest assembly and reconfiguration periods at the space station. The primary objectives for the first three of these spacewalks, conducted on Nov. 9, Nov. 20, and Nov. 24, involved relocating the Harmony Node 2 module and PMA-2 to the front of Destiny and preparing Harmony for the arrival of the Columbus module. Work during the fourth and fifth excursions on Dec. 18 and Jan. 30, 2008, had Whitson conduct inspections and maintenance on the station’s solar array joints. During her next mission to the space station, a 289-day stay that set a new record as the longest single flight by a woman, she completed a further four spacewalks. During Expedition 50, on Jan. 6, 2017, she upgraded the station’s power system by installing three new lithium-ion batteries, and on March 30 installed electrical connections to the PMA-3 recently relocated to Harmony’s top-facing port.
During Expedition 51, as station commander once again, Whitson stepped outside on May 12 to replace an avionics package on an external logistics carrier and installed a protective shield on PMA-3. Her 10th and final excursion involved a contingency spacewalk to replace a backup data converter unit that failed three days earlier. With her 10 excursions, Whitson shares a seven-way second place tie for most spacewalks; only one person has conducted more. And with regard to total spacewalk time, she places sixth overall, having spent a total of 60 hours, 21 minutes outside the station.
Left: During STS-115, NASA astronaut Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper conducts the first of her five career spacewalks. Middle: During STS-116, NASA astronaut Sunita L. Williams after the conclusion of the first of her seven career spacewalks. Right: Expedition 20 NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott during her STS-128 spacewalk.
During STS-115, NASA astronaut Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper participated in two of the mission’s three spacewalks. The primary tasks of the excursions on Sept. 12 and 15, 2006, involved the addition of the P3/P4 truss segment including a pair of solar arrays to the station. During her second visit to the space station on STS-126, Stefanyshyn-Piper completed three more spacewalks on Nov. 18, 20, and 22, 2008. Tasks accomplished during these excursions included performing maintenance on one of the solar array joints, replacing a nitrogen tank, and relocating two equipment carts.
During Expedition 14, NASA astronaut Sunita L. Williams completed four spacewalks. During the first excursion during the STS-116 docked phase on Dec. 16, 2006, the primary task involved the reconfiguration of the station’s power system. The primary tasks for Williams’ three Expedition 14 spacewalks on Jan. 31, Feb. 4, and Feb. 8, 2007, involved completing the reconfiguration of the station’s cooling system. As a flight engineer during Expedition 32, Williams conducted spacewalks on Aug. 30, 2012, to replace a faulty power routing unit and prepare the station for the arrival of the Nauka module, and on Sept. 5, 2012, to install a spare power unit. During Expedition 33, Williams assumed command of the station, only the second woman to do so, and during a spacewalk on Nov. 1, 2012, repaired an ammonia leak. Across her seven spacewalks, Williams spent 50 hours 40 minutes outside the station.
Expedition 20 NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott completed her one and only spacewalk on Sept. 1, 2009, during the STS-128 docked phase. The objectives of the 6-hour 35-minute excursion involved preparing for the replacement of an empty ammonia tank and retrieving American and European experiments from the Columbus module.
Left: NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson during Expedition 24, at the conclusion of the first of her four career spacewalks. Middle: During Expedition 48, NASA astronaut Kathleen H. Rubins takes the first of her four career spacewalks. Right: Expedition 59 NASA astronaut Anne C. McClain on the first of her two spacewalks.
On July 24, 2010, during Expedition 24, one of the station’s ammonia pump modules failed. The loss of coolant forced controllers to shut down several critical station systems although neither the vehicle nor the crew were ever in danger. The failure resulted in two of the Expedition crew members including NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson performing three contingency spacewalks on Aug. 7, 11, and 16, 2010, to replace the pump module. The repairs took nearly 23 hours of spacewalking time. During her next mission, Expedition 71, Dyson began a spacewalk on June 24, 2024, but a leak in her suit forced the cancellation of the excursion after 31 minutes.
NASA astronaut Kathleen H. Rubins completed two spacewalks during Expedition 48. During the first, on Aug. 19, 2016, she helped to install the first of two international docking adapters (IDA) to PMA-2 located at the forward end of Harmony. The IDA allows commercial spacecraft to dock autonomously to the space station. During the second excursion on Sept. 1, she retracted a thermal radiator, tightened struts on a solar array joint, and installed high-definition cameras on the outside of the station. Rubins conducted two more spacewalks during her second mission, Expedition 64. On Feb. 28, 2021, she began to assemble and install modification kits for upcoming solar array upgrades, completing the tasks during the next spacewalk on March 5.
During her first spacewalk on March 22, 2019, Expedition 59 NASA astronaut Anne C. McClain replaced older nickel hydrogen batteries with newer and more efficient lithium-ion batteries. McClain ventured out for her second spacewalk on April 8 to install a redundant power circuit for the station’s Canadarm robotic arm and cables for more expansive wireless coverage outside the station.
Left: Expedition 59 NASA astronaut Christina H. Koch during the first of her six career spacewalks. Right: NASA astronauts Jessica U. Meir, left, and Koch, assisted by their Expedition 61 crewmates, prepare for the first all-woman spacewalk.
During Expedition 59, Koch conducted her first spacewalk on March 29. She helped to install three newer lithium-ion batteries to replace six older nickel hydrogen batteries. The Expedition 61 crew conducted a record nine spacewalks between October 2019 and January 2020, and women participated in five of them. Koch’s second and third spacewalks on Oct 6 and 11 continued the work of replacing the station’s batteries.
Koch and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica U. Meir made history on Oct. 18 when they floated outside the space station to carry out the first all-woman spacewalk, one of several excursions to replace the station’s batteries. The capsule communicator (capcom), the person in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston who communicates with the astronauts in space, for this historic spacewalk was three-time space shuttle veteran Stephanie D. Wilson.
“As much as it’s worth celebrating the first spacewalk with an all-female team, I think many of us are looking forward to it just being normal,” astronaut Dyson said during live coverage of the spacewalk.
Koch and Meir conducted two more all-woman spacewalks on Jan. 15 and 20, 2020, continuing the battery replacement tasks. During her six spacewalks, Koch spent 44 hours 15 minutes outside. In addition to her spacewalk accomplishments, Koch set a new record of 328 days for a single spaceflight by a woman.
Left: Wang Yaping during the first spacewalk by a Chinese woman astronaut from the Tiangong space station. Image credit: courtesy of CNSA. Middle: NASA astronaut Kayla S. Barron during the first of two spacewalks during Expedition 66. Right: During Expedition 67, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti conducts the first spacewalk by a woman from the European Space Agency.
During her second trip into space, People’s Republic of China astronaut Wang Yaping launched aboard the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft as part of the second resident crew to live aboard China’s Tiangong space station. On Nov. 7, 2021, she stepped outside the space station, the first Chinese woman to do so, wearing a Feitian-2 spacesuit. She spent 6 hours 25 minutes installing a grapple fixture for the facility’s robotic arm.
During Expedition 66, NASA astronaut Kayla S. Barron completed two spacewalks. During the first one, on Dec. 2, 2021, Barron replaced a faulty communications antenna. On March 15, 2022, during the second spacewalk, she assembled and installed modification kits required for future solar array upgrades.
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti conducted the first spacewalk by a female European Space Agency astronaut. For the excursion on July 21, 2022, she wore an Orlan spacesuit and used the Poisk module airlock. Objectives of the spacewalk included deploying 10 nanosatellites, working to install the European robotic arm on the Nauka module, and reconfiguring cargo booms.
Left: Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, left, during her spacewalk from the Tiangong space station. Image credit: courtesy of CNSA. Right. NASA astronaut Nicole A. Mann at the conclusion of her first spacewalk during Expedition 68.
As a member of the third expedition aboard the Tiangong space station, Chinese astronaut Liu Yang participated in a spacewalk on Sept. 1, 2022. This marked the first use of the airlock in the Wentian module. Activities during the excursion included installing work stations and an additional cooling pump for the Wentian module.
Expedition 68 NASA astronaut Nicole A. Mann participated in two spacewalks, on Jan. 20, and Feb. 2, 2023. Objectives of the excursions included assembling and installing brackets for upcoming solar array upgrades.
Left: Laurel A. O’Hara, left, and Jasmin Moghbeli, right, prepare for their spacewalk during Expedition 70. Right: SpaceX astronaut Sarah L. Gillis performs the first commercial spacewalk by a woman during the Polaris Dawn mission.
During Expedition 70, NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral A. O’Hara performed the fourth all-woman spacewalk. The primary activity during the excursion involved replacement of bearings in a solar array joint.
SpaceX employee Sarah L. Gillis performed the first female commercial spacewalk during the Polaris Dawn mission on Sept. 12, 2024. During the 1 hour 46 minute excursion, Gillis tested the flexibility of the SpaceX designed spacesuit.
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By NASA
Environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Oct. 16, 2024, to commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) mission.
“The image of our Earth from space is the single most compelling iconic image that any of us have ever seen,” Gore said at a panel discussion for employees. “Now we have, thanks to DSCOVR, 50,000 ‘Blue Marble’ photographs … To date there are more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications that are based on the unique science gathered at the L1 point by DSCOVR. For all of the scientists who are here and those on the teams that are represented here, I want to say congratulations and thank you.”
To commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) mission, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., hosted environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore, shown here addressing a crowd in the Building 3 Harry J. Goett Auditorium, on Oct. 16, 2024.NASA/Travis Wohlrab Following opening remarks from Gore, Goddard scientists participated in a panel discussion entitled “Remote Sensing and the Future of Earth Observations. From left to right: Dalia Kirschbaum, director, NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Division; Miguel Román, deputy director, atmospheres, NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Division; Lesley Ott, project scientist, U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center; John Bolten, chief, NASA Goddard Hydrological Sciences Laboratory.NASA/Travis Wohlrab Gore shakes hands with Kirschbaum following the panel discussion. Goddard Center Director Makenzie Lystrup stands between the two.NASA/Katy Comber Gore visits the overlook for the NASA Goddard clean room where the Roman Space Telescope is being assembled. Julie McEnery, Roman senior project scientist, stands at right.NASA/Katy Comber Christa Peters-Lidard, NASA Goddard’s Sciences and Exploration Directorate director (left), speaks with Gore in the lobby of Building 32, where the former vice president viewed the control room of NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission.NASA/Katy Comber Following Gore’s talk on climate monitoring, Goddard scientists participated in a panel discussion, “Remote Sensing and the Future of Earth Observations,” which explored the latest advancements in technology that allow for the monitoring of the atmosphere from space and showcased how Goddard’s research drives the future of Earth science.
Gore’s visit also entailed a meeting with the DSCOVR science team, a view into the clean room where Goddard is assembling the Roman Space Telescope, and a stop at the control center for PACE: NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission.
Launched Feb. 11, 2015, DSCOVR is a space weather station that monitors changes in the solar wind, providing space weather alerts and forecasts for geomagnetic storms that could disrupt power grids, satellites, telecommunications, aviation and GPS.
DSCOVR is a joint mission among NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Air Force. The project originally was called Triana, a mission conceived of by Gore in 1998 during his vice presidency.
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Last Updated Oct 17, 2024 EditorRob GarnerContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Goddard Space Flight Center Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) View the full article
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