Japanese astronaut completes second spacewalk

Japanese astronaut Wakata Koichi has completed his second spacewalk outside the International Space Station.

Wakata, and another astronaut from US space agency NASA, ventured out of the ISS at around 13:00 UTC on Thursday.

Their extravehicular activity lasted more than six hours. They followed up work they did last month to install a platform to mount roll-out solar arrays.

After finishing the spacewalk, Wakata addressed people in Japan, thanking them for their support and calling for united efforts on space missions to make the best use of the ISS.

Wakata is the fifth Japanese astronaut to walk in space. He has been living on the ISS since October 2022 on a roughly six-month mission to conduct experiments for future expeditions to the Moon and Mars.

Source: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230203_06/