Watch Live: Final Spacewalk of Space Shuttle Program

The final spacewalk of the shuttle era is taking place today, beginning at 8:22 a.m. EDT (12:22 UTC). You can watch it live on the viewer above. This is the 160th spacewalk supporting assembly and maintenance of the space station and the 249th EVA conducted by U.S. astronauts. The two spacwalkers are actually from the ISS crew, Expedition 28’s Mike Fossum and Ron Garan, but are being assisted by the shuttle crew. Shuttle Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus will operate the station’s 58-foot-long robotic arm to maneuver the spacewalkers around during the spacewalk.

Fossum, EV-1, is the lead spacewalker and is wearing a suit with red stripes, while Garan, EV-2, wears an all-white spacesuit. Fossum’s helmet camera displays the number 20 and Garan’s the number 18.

The spacewalkers move a faulty ISS ammonia coolant pump from an external stowage platform and store it in Atlantis’ cargo bay for return to Earth. They also will install a robotic refueling demonstration kit and a materials science space exposure experiment.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/