Imagine being out in space, untethered to anything...sound pretty cool? Actually, most spacewalks keep astronauts tethered to the ship.
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Astronauts do everything from sightseeing to hard labor on spacewalks, staying tied to the ship for safety. Can you imagine that first step out into space?
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This astronaut is floating through the space capsule, perhaps heading out into the vastness of space. See what kind of work is done during spacewalks in the next photo.
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An astronaut makes adjustments to the Hubble space telescope. In the next photo, see what it's like to hover above planetary clouds.
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An astronaut floats securely in space. Next, see what's left over from man's walks on the moon.
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These prints were left by American astronauts on the moon. Next, get a glimpse of what that walk must've felt like.
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The lunar landing was the most important space walk in history. Most spacewalks don't get as much attention, though. Instead, they call for routine maintenance, as shown next.
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Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski checks out his repair work on the fully deployed solar array of the International Space Station. Next, see the different ways astronauts stay attached to their ships.
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Astronauts may be tethered to the Space Shuttle, attached to the Remote Manipulator Arm (as above), or equipped with free-floating maneuver packs. And sometimes they take props with them...
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Astronauts show their lighter side by sporting a For Sale sign as they recapture a communications spacecraft.
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Spacewalking is truly a one-of-a-kind gig. But just like many other jobs, there's lots of practice involved. Training for spacewalks is intensive. Here we see astronauts preparing for spacewalking by practicing their tasks underwater, in a giant pool NASA calls the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
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Astronaut Alvin Drew gets ready for his spacewalking duties. He is partially inside and partially outside of the Quest airlock on the International Space Station.
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During a four-hour, 54-minute spacewalk, astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Tom Marshburn (out of view) secured multi-layer insulation, split out power channels for two space station gyroscopes, installed video cameras and performed several other tasks. All in a day's work, if your job was to help build and maintain the International Space Station.
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This is what it looks like when a spacewalking astronaut calls it a day. Time to head inside! Astronaut Andrew Feustel re-enters the International Space Station after completing an eight-hour, seven-minute spacewalk in the spring of 2011.
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Here we see astronaut Mike Fossum during a seven-hour, 11-minute spacewalk. Fossum and another astronaut, Ron Garan, performed several tasks related to the "Kibo" Japanese Pressurized Module (JPM) on the International Space Station. They also prepared an auxiliary nitrogen tank assembly for installation and retrieved a failed television camera. Never a dull moment!
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In this image, we catch a space-bound glimpse of astronaut Rick Mastracchio. On this day, he and astronaut Clayton Anderson removed a spent ammonia tank then installed a new 1,700-pound ammonia tank on the International Space Station. Their work completed the second of three spacewalks performed to replace coolant tanks.
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In a different shot, we again see astronauts Tom Marshburn (this time he's making an appearance) and Christopher Cassidy hard at work, spacewalking on the space station.
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More diving fun in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory! Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel get some underwater practice installing a new imaging instrument on the the Hubble Space Telescope at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas.
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During construction and maintenance on the International Space Station, Expedition 16 commander Peggy A. Whitson took part in the project's 100th spacewalk. Whitson's work on the space station was more historic than just hitting a big round number above the big blue Earth, however. She was the first female commander of the International Space Station.
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Anchored to a foot restraint, astronaut Garrett Reisman conducts a spacewalk. Good thing those restraints are well engineered!
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In an image with an almost sci-fi quality about it, European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel works in the darkness of space on the International Space Station. He was helping to replace a nitrogen tank used to pressurize the station's ammonia cooling system.
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Clad in blue thermal undergarments that go with the Russian Orlan spacesuit, cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratyev (left) and Oleg Skripochka prepare to put on their spacesuits for a walk outside the space station early in 2011.
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Fans of the jetpack may appreciate what astronaut Mark Lee is doing in this shot. He's testing the SAFER backpack (Simplified Aid for Extravehicular Activity Rescue ). The device has small thruster jets that serve as emergency backup, should an astronaut get separated from his or her ship. In that scary event, the astronaut can use the SAFER backpack to fly back to the ship. NASA considers a fully equipped spacesuit more like a one-person spacecraft. The suits supply oxygen and water, and they also protect spacewalkers from tiny bits of space dust, which, while small, are still moving in space faster than a bullet. Spacewalking astronauts also face vastly disparate temperatures. When in orbit around Earth, it can be as cold as minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 157 degrees Celsius), while in the sunlight it can be as hot as 250 degrees F (121 degrees C). Spacesuits protect astronauts from those extreme temperatures.
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Perched high above Mother Earth, astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Díaz handles a grapple fixture during a spacewalk made to perform work on the International Space Station.
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Mission specialist Scott Parazynski takes part in a spacewalk during construction on the International Space Station. He spent six hours and 33 minutes out there alongside a flight engineer, Daniel Tani, working on upgrades to the space station.
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In low-Earth orbit, the atmosphere is so thin that there isn't enough of it to scatter and diffuse sunlight. So what you get up there are black shadows and dark sky, even when the sun is shining. You can see that effect in this 1997 picture as astronaut John Tanner does a spacewalk to perform some service work on the Hubble Space Telescope. If you look closely, you can see a checklist attached to Tanner's left arm.
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In this picture, we step back in time a bit to 1969's Apollo 9 mission. Astronaut Russell Schweickart, the mission's lunar module pilot, stands on the module's deck during a spacewalk. The image was taken from inside the lunar module "Spider" by mission commander James McDivitt. Apollo 9 was the first manned flight of the command/service module along with the lunar module. The mission's crew tested several things that were critical to landing on the moon, including the lunar module's engines, backpack life support systems, navigation systems and docking maneuvers. It was the third manned mission of the Apollo program, launching on March 3, 1969. The crew spent 10 days in low-Earth orbit. Of course, it would only be a few months later, on July 20, 1969, that mankind would visit the moon for the first time, on the historic Apollo 11 mission.
Image Credit: NASA/James McDivitt
Astronauts can't just pop out the hatchway for a spacewalk, of course. There's lots of prep work to be done, including spacesuit checks. Here astronauts Clayton Anderson, left, and Rick Mastracchio check their spacesuits in preparation for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The room they're in is called the Quest airlock.
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Mission specialist Piers J. Sellers moves along a truss on the International Space Station during the his mission's final session of extravehicular activity. Space Shuttle Discovery was docked with the station at the time.
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We'll close out our picture gallery by again going back in time, this time to the Apollo 12 mission. This picture is unusual because in it you can see two U.S. spacecraft on the surface of the moon as well as a moonwalker nearby for good measure. The Apollo 12 lunar module is in the background and the unmanned Surveyor III spacecraft is in the foreground. (Surveyor III had soft-landed on the moon on April 19, 1967.) The lunar module, with astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr. and Alan L. Bean aboard, landed about 600 feet from Surveyor III in the Ocean of Storms area of the moon. A television camera and several other items were taken from Surveyor III and brought back to Earth for study. In this shot, Conrad examines Surveyor's TV camera prior to detaching it. Missing out on any moonwalking was astronaut Richard F. Gordon, Jr., who remained with the command and service modules in lunar orbit.
Still want to see more space exploration pictures? Check out our Mars Rover gallery!
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