Timelapse video made during ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s second mission to the International Space Station, “Alpha”.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough performed three spacewalks in the span of 10 days to install two new solar arrays that will generate more electricity on the International Space Station.

The third and final spacewalk for the duo happened on June 25 to finish installing the second pair of new solar arrays. This spacewalk proceeded without problems, and the two new solar arrays are already working and supplying power to the Space Station.

The design of the new solar arrays will be used to power the lunar Gateway that will be built in an orbit around the Moon – the next outpost in space for the agencies that run the International Space Station.

Thomas has now spent exactly 33 hours on spacewalks, all with Shane over the course of two spaceflights.

Thomas posted this video on his social media channels with the caption: “Aki took another great timelapse of our last spacewalk to install the new solar panels... for now. Four more are set to be installed, but they are not on the Station yet. This timelapse is great because it shows how small we are compared to the huge layout of the Space Station (it is about the same size as a football field – both types: American football or actually-using-your-feet-football fields). Note how the solar arrays we are working on don't move, this is because they were turned off and not following the Sun so were not generating power. As an extra precaution we didn't connect the power cables until darkness!”

Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES.

Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.              

Timelapse directed by JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide, edited by Melanie Cowan.