NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei captured this "space-selfie" while performing the first spacewalk of 2018 on Jan. 23 at the International Space Station. Source: NASA

On February 15, 2018, two astronauts are set to walk outside the International Space Station (ISS). The goal for these two astronauts is to move the ISS’ robotic system into long-term storage. NASA will be streaming the walk live on NASA TV and the NASA website starting at 5:30 a.m. EST.

Mark Vande Hei, from NASA and Norishige Kanai, from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will be starting their walk into space at 7:10 a.m. Their mission is expected to finish at 1:40 p.m. They will be moving a Latching End Effector (LEE) for the robotic arm, Canadarm2, from a payload attachment into the Queste airlock. The payload is located on ISS’ Mobile Base System rail car. LEE was replaced during a previous expedition in October 2017. LEE will travel to Earth for updating before returning to the ISS as a spare arm.

This spacewalk was supposed to happen on January 29, but it was put off because the new LEE installed was having startup issues. But now that those problems have been fixed, the expedition will go on as scheduled.

This will be the 208th spacewalk on the ISS for maintenance and assembly, and it will be the third spacewalk of 2018. This is an exciting expedition for Kanai; it is his first spacewalk. He is the fourth Japanese astronaut to walk in space. But don’t worry, Vande Hei is a skilled spacewalker, as this will be his fourth spacewalk. To differentiate the two astronauts, Vande Hei will be wearing a spacesuit with red strips, and Kanai’s spacesuit will be plain.

Make sure to tune into the NASA TV website next Thursday to watch these astronauts on their adventure!