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

Saint-Jacques’ and 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 accomplished the feat in six hours, 29 minutes, with no apparent issues.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg&feature=youtu.be

The pair emerged about 30 minutes ahead of schedule and Saint-Jacques performed a few brief movements to get used to his suit before quickly getting underway.

Their tasks included relocating a battery adaptor plate, upgrading the station’s wireless communication system and connecting jumper cables along the midpoint of the station’s main truss to give Canadarm2 an alternative power source.

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.

“All and all, a very busy spacewalk,” retired astronaut Dave Williams said at Canadian Space Agency headquarters in suburban Montreal. “They have four major tasks to perform, and David and Anne are going to be all over the space station.”

Williams spoke to Saint-Jacques over the weekend. “I told David, ‘You’re going to get the perfect tour,’ ” he said.