NASA has released two breathtaking GoPro videos featuring two of its astronauts spacewalking on a maintenance mission at the International Space Station (ISS). The incredible footage shows what it is like to spacewalk outside the ISS. The GoPro videos contain head-spinning views of the Earth floating by. The footage lets you feel the real spacewalks taken by astronauts Terry Virts and Bruce McCandless.
NASA should make all astronauts wear GoPro
The first video comes from the EVA30 (Extravehicular Activity) completed on February 25. The two astronauts took along a GoPro camera when they went outside the ISS to reconfigure it in preparation for the expected arrival of the commercial spacecraft in 2017. They also serviced the ISS’ robotic arm. The second video was from the EVA31, which was also aimed at preparations for the commercial spaceflight. The second spacewalk took place on March 1st.
During the spacewalks, the two astronauts set up antennas and routed more than 4,000 feet of data and power cables for the arrival of commercial spacecraft. Those selected to man the future commercial spaceflights will certainly get an idea of what they can expect upon reaching the International Space Station. NASA should make more astronauts wear GoPro camera when spacewalking.
GoPro earns free publicity
The U.S. space agency’s space shuttle fleet retired in 2011 after about three decades of service. NASA currently relies on Russia’s Soyuz to ferry its astronauts at the cost of $70 million per seat. Last year, the space agency signed multi-billion dollar contracts with SpaceX and Boeing to build new space crafts that will ferry NASA astronauts to the ISS.
Such breathtaking and adventure-filled videos bring free publicity to GoPro. Last week, an incredible GoPro footage went viral when Swedish YouTuber Kristoffer Örstadius found an old camera in a meadow and posted the last video on YouTube to find the rightful owner of the camera. It showed the camera falling for 10,000 above the Earth.