Astronaut David Saint-Jacques becomes fourth Canadian to complete spacewalk

LONGUEUIL, Que. — David Saint-Jacques has joined select company, becoming just the fourth Canadian astronaut to take part in a spacewalk and the first in 12 years as he began a roughly seven-hour mission today.

Saint-Jacques’ and his American colleague NASA astronaut Anne McClain officially began their spacewalk just after 7:30 a.m. EDT according to the U.S. space agency, when they switched to battery power, officially disconnecting from the International Space Station.

They completed their mission without apparent problem in just under seven hours. The two astronauts returned to the Space Station approximately 30 minutes earlier than planned.

The Canadian’s spacewalk comes on his first posting to the station, which began in December.

The two colleagues had to move an adapter plate from battery, upgrade the wireless communication system of the station and connect cables along the center point of the station to provide a backup energy source for Canadarm2.

Canadarm2 is a sort of robotic hand that is crucial to maintaining the space station, and the cables would allow the arm to make repairs in case of an outage without requiring a spacewalk.

Canadian Space Agency robotics flight controllers will provide support to the astronauts from mission control in Houston.

Retired Canadian astronaut Dave Williams, who is commenting on the spacewalk from the agency’s headquarters in suburban Montreal, says Saint-Jacques was in good spirits when he spoke to him.

Williams holds the Canadian record for the most spacewalks, having spent a total of just under 18 hours outside the space station three times during a 2007 mission.

Williams was also the last Canadian until Saint-Jacques to have performed a spacewalk.

The other two astronauts to have performed the feat are Steve MacLean in 2006 and Chris Hadfield — the first Canadian spacewalker — in 2001.