Astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is staying at the International Space Station, will perform his first extravehicular activity in outer space on the night of the 20th Japan time.

Astronaut Koichi Wakata was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA last October on a private spacecraft "Crew Dragon", and stayed at the ISS = International Space Station for about half a year. We are working on various experiments with a view to the future exploration of the Moon and Mars.



Mr. Wakata will start the spacewalk for about 6 hours from 10:00 pm on the 20th Japan time.



During the extravehicular activity, Mr. Wakata and an astronaut from NASA, who is also staying on the ISS, will work in pairs to set up a stand for installing a new type of solar panel.



This will be Wakata's first spacewalk and the fifth Japanese astronaut.



Mr. Wakata posted on his Twitter account a photo of him in a space suit and said, "Preparations for the spacewalk are proceeding steadily."



Last month at the International Space Station, coolant leaked from a docked Russian spacecraft, causing a sudden postponement of spacewalks by Russian astronauts. EVA was resumed because there was no accident.