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Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov completed a spacewalk to inspect a docking compartment on the International Space Station (ISS) in preparation for the installation of a Russian research module next year.
Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov spent nearly seven hours on the spacewalk on November 18. It was the first for both cosmonauts.
The cosmonauts began the spacewalk around 10 a.m. (1500 GMT) and re-entered the Poisk docking compartment airlock around 5 p.m. (2200 GMT), NASA said.
His mission was to inspect the Poisk airlock for leaks, among other tasks, such as relocating an antenna cable, recovering hardware that measures space debris impacts, and repositioning an instrument used to measure debris from propellant shots.
They had to scrap one of their assignments due to a stubborn bolt that prevented them from replacing a fluid flow regulator in Russia’s oldest compartment on the ISS, Zarya.
NASA said the old regulator was still working and the change would be deferred for a later spacewalk.
The mission included preparations for the installation of the Nauka research module, to be delivered next year from the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan a decade late due to a series of repairs.
The 22-ton laboratory, which spans 13 meters, is so large that it will be launched by a powerful Proton rocket. Once on the ISS, it will function as an airlock and docking port.
Relocating the antenna cable was the first step in dismantling the old compartment of Russia’s Pirs spacewalk to make room for the new laboratory.
The Pirs module will be removed and scrapped next year. Plans call for a cargo ship to be attached to it and used to guide it into a fiery reentry.
