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It was the first spacewalk experience for Glover, who is just months away from his first space flight at the station.
“What a beautiful sight,” Glover said after starting the spacewalk.
This was the third spacewalk for Hopkins, who had previously completed two spacewalks during his first six-month space station adventure from September 25, 2013 to March 10, 2014.
The spacewalk officially began at 6:28 a.m. ET and ended at 1:24 p.m. ET. It lasted about six hours and 56 minutes.
This is the 233rd spacewalk in support of the space station.
Hopkins wore the red striped space suit as crew member 1 and Hopkins wore the unstriped space suit as crew member 2.
The astronauts focused on the progress made with the installation of Bartolomeo, the last payload accommodation station outside of the European Space Agency’s Columbus module. They worked on rigging the antennas and cables to connect the power and data connections.
The Bartolomeo platform, named after Christopher Columbus’ younger brother, is the first example of a European business partnership that provides a venue to conduct science and technology demonstrations outside the space station, according to the European Space Agency.
The Columbus module has also been upgraded with a terminal that provides a high bandwidth independent communication link for European ground stations.
The two astronauts encountered some issues while trying to connect two of the cables, so the ground crews will troubleshoot the solutions and the task will be added to a future spacewalk.
During the spacewalk, Glover dropped a protective coating that was no longer needed for the antenna.
“@AstroVicGlover throws a science antenna cover into space as it is no longer needed. Eventually it will enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn safely,” according to a tweet from the International Space Station account.
The two astronauts joked after five hours that they wished they could make it to the space station airlock and go there for “snacks and bacon.”
Even though their heavy suits are weightless, astronauts often say that spacewalks are the most physically difficult and exhausting tasks they perform in space.
Hopkins and Glover also have a second spacewalk scheduled for February 1.
Astronauts will install the last lithium-ion battery adapter plate on Monday. This installation puts an end to the work to replace aging batteries outside the station which began in January 2017.
Hopkins, Glover, NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi flew to the station in November aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft. They joined NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who were already at the station after the launch in October.
During the two spacewalks, Rubins is tasked with operating the robotic arm from inside the space station to help the astronauts work outside.
They will focus on other upgrades, like replacing an external standard camera with a new high-definition camera on the Destiny Lab, and replace the camera and lighting assembly components needed for the camera system of the Japanese robotic arm, located outside the Kibo module.
“We’ve been talking about these two EVAs (extra-vehicular activities) for a good part of the year, so we’re delighted to see them performed,” said Kenny Todd, deputy director of the International Space Station program at NASA during a press conference on Friday.
There are other spacewalks planned for the crew in late February and early March.
Glover and Rubins will team up for the third spacewalk to prepare the station’s electrical system for the installation of new solar panels, which will increase the power supply to the station.
Rubins and Noguchi will conduct the fourth spacewalk to continue upgrades to the space station.
During these long spacewalks, astronauts go through alternating cycles of day and night every 45 minutes, operating against the warm, bright light of the sun as well as against the cold darkness of space. This happens because the space station orbit the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour.
Although astronauts don’t feel the direct effects of extreme cold and heat, there is a risk of cold, so there are heaters installed in astronauts’ gloves to keep their hands warm, said Vincent LaCourt, director spacewalk flights to NASA for the February 1 spacewalk.
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