In pictures: How UAE astronaut's historic spacewalk will pan out on Friday

The UAE’s Sultan AlNeyadi will take the first step for the Arab world’s historic spacewalk on Friday at 5.15pm (UAE time). He and Nasa astronaut Stephen Bowen will spend around 6 hours, 30 minutes “in the vacuum of space” to upgrade the power generation system of the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

Bowen will serve as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1) and will wear a spacesuit with red stripes. AlNeyadi will serve as extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2) and will wear a suit with white stripes.

Here’s what will happen during the historic spacewalk:

EV 1 (Bowen) will be the first to egress. He will preposition two cooler bags on the airlock toolbox. EV 2 (AlNeyadi) will come out next and he will close the thermal cover.

After securing his body restraint tether, AlNeyadi will go to the external storage platform to stow his toolbox for later use; while Bowen heads to the starboard (right side of ISS facing forward) for the integrated electronics assembly. AlNeyadi then goes port side to retrieve an articulating portable foot restraint.

Both EV1 and EV2 will route cables on either side of the ISS power augmentation modification kit installed on one Bravo Beta Gimbal Assembly (the mechanism used to manoeuvre the solar arrays).

They will also adjust the beta cloth on the modification kit to preclude thermal stresses on the metal structure, and that concludes the activities and preparation for a future ISS rollout of solar array.

AlNeyadi then goes to the radio frequency group (RFG) work site. He will cut the clamshell portion off so it will remain installed on the high antenna, then he'll place the protective caps. Meanwhile, Bowen will retrieve another portable foot restraint from the port crew equipment aid cart and instal it onto the robotic arm before pulling the radio frequency group hardware off the ISS.

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