Astronauts continue work on ISS solar array

Work continues on a new solar array to help power the International Space Station. 

R. Shane Kimbrough, a Georgia native and Commander of the NASA SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station, conducted a spacewalk on Sunday morning, streamed live on NASA's Twitter account.

The work will take approximately 6.5 hours to install and deploy new solar arrays on the space station.

Kimbrough was joined by French astronaut, Thomas Pesquet.

The two conducted a roughly seven-hour spacewalk on June 16. Sunday's spacewalk was the eighth this year by ISS astronauts.   

Astronauts began preparing their suits at set them to battery power before 8 a.m. eastern time. 

After approximately two hours, the solar array was unfolded and the astronauts began to bolt it into place. 

The space station is orbiting approximately 250 miles above Earth. 

Kimbrough, a Georgia Tech graduate who also attended The Lovett School in Atlanta, will have spent more than 50 hours spacewalking at the conclusion of Sunday's work. 

Space station crew members have conducted 240 spacewalks, totaling more than 62 days working outside the station. In the station's 20-year history 244 people from 19 countries have visited the orbiting laboratory that has hosted nearly 3,000 research investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.

WATCH: FOX 5 Atlanta live news coverage

_____

Sign up for FOX 5 email alerts

Download the FOX 5 Atlanta app for breaking news and weather alerts.