Today is the second time this month astronauts will venture outside the safety of the International Space Station. It is one of a series of three spacewalks scheduled and the overall mission is maintenance and repair. The first was on October 5th, which unfortunately I missed, the second one is live now, and the 3rd will take place on the 18th. During the first one, astronauts have replaced instruments and grabbing mechanism on Canadarm2, a robotic arm placed on rails on one of the station's trusses, used to manipulate objects in space from inside the station.

Today's mission lubricate that grabbing instruments, named Latching End Effector (LEE), in order for it to function properly. Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei, both from NASA, are tasked with this 255th spacewalk in support of the ISS. Another task for this mission is mounting new cameras on a truss of the station, upgrading to HD video. This is the fourth spacewalk Randy Bresnik has performed, and the second for Mark Vande Hei, with the first ever venture into space having been on the 5th. Mark Bresnik is commander for this mission, and will also be leading the team on the 18th.

This mission is expected to last about six to seven hours. You can watch the wonders of space from just about 400 kilometres above the Earth live below. It is the embedded Live feed from NASA's Media channel.

UPDATES

• Astronauts are in their space suits awaiting depressurisation of the airlock.
• Astronauts have exited the ISS just when the sun was rising.
• Safety mounts have been installed and maintenance work has begun
• As night sets for the first time during this mission, astronauts are starting work on replacing a failing SD camera with a brand new HD camera on the station truss.
• After 2.5 hours, the first task has been completed. One of the two secondary bolts holding the new camera did not fully deploy, but the primary bolts will are keeping it safely attached to the truss.
• Installation of the camera, including a mechanism on the rail car to which it is attached that allows it to pan an tilt is complete. Additionally a lens filter has also been replaced and the camera has been tested and is now operational. Greasing the robotic arm will commence next.
• After six hours and 26 minutes, the mission has ended. The astronauts are in the airlock awaiting repressurisation.

See you on the 18th!

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