Watch An Astronaut’s First Spacewalk [Updated]

Last night, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet flexed his spacewalking muscles for the first time — and we got to live vicariously through him, thanks to a livestream straight from space.

Image credit: Eye Ubiquitous via Getty Images

Correction: Because of a time conversion error, we were astronomically off on the timing of this spacewalk. Sorry! It took place last night, and the text of this article has been updated to reflect that fact. Thankfully, NASA knows that some of us space nerds may have missed it, and it has been re-streaming highlights throughout the day. You can tune into that re-stream below. 

The livestream began at 9:30PM AEDT, with the spacewalk itself kicking off at 10:22PM AEDT and lasting just under seven hours, according to Space.com.

In November, Pesquet departed Earth for his six-month mission aboard the International Space Station, called Proxima. According to the ESA, he’ll “maintain the weightless research laboratory and run scientific experiments for hundreds of researchers on Earth”.

But last night, he completed a battery upgrade with the assistance of NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough. This was far from Kimbrough’s first stroll in space — on Friday, January 6, he and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson spent over six hours outside the ISS installing adaptor plates. That’s roughly how long it takes me to assemble a shoe rack, from Target, on Earth.

Ad astra and happy watching!