2 Russian Cosmonauts Finish 6-Hour Spacewalk To Replace Station Hardware, Dispose of Old Gear

Two Russian cosmonauts recently completed a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Thursday. The pair reportedly cleaned up the exterior and replaced the station's hardware.

Russian Cosmonauts Spacewalk

Expedition 69 commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin, both of Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, exited the space station's Poisk module at 10:24 a.m. EDT Thursday to install communication equipment outside the International Space Station after retrieving multiple experiment packages from the Zvezda and Poisk modules, per NASA. They completed the spacewalk after 6 hours and 24 minutes at 4:48 p.m. EDT.

It was Petelin's fifth spacewalk and Prokopyev's seventh. It was the 266th spacewalk for space station construction, upkeep, and improvements, and the ninth spacewalk at the station in 2023, NASA noted in another report.

More Details About the Cosmonauts' Spacewalk

The two spacewalkers also took pictures of the Zvezda service module's plume deflectors for further inspection by Russian experts on the ground. The deflectors protect the station from the engine's exhaust plume.

Nearly 23 years have passed since Zvezda was launched aboard a Russian Proton rocket in July 2000.

Prokopyev said that it appears to be a soiled frying pan. That might have created some tasty french fries.

Petelin answered it was the case as it hadn't been washed for a long time.

The cosmonauts photographed the far aft end of the Zvezda service module's boom, on which a high-data antenna is placed, in high resolution.

The team subsequently shifted to Zvezda's other side to complete their responsibilities during the spacewalk. They removed a biological sample exposure package from a location close to the door of the Poisk airlock and wiped one of the module's windows with towels that they later ejected.

Aside from that, Prokopyev and Petelin worked quickly to reroute cables, disconnect a data relay unit and a telemetry transmitter, as well as the hardware for a finished experiment that measured seismic activity on Earth, before tossing each overboard for eventual disposal, burning up in Earth's atmosphere.

Mission Control Moscow advised to get rid of it, and Prokopyev tossed one into space.

The Seismoprognoz experiment was mounted outside the Zvezda service module on Dec. 27, 2013, during an Expedition 38 spacewalk, which took place approximately ten years ago. The Seismoprognoz was thrown off the back of the space station, similarly to how the communication units were, making it impossible for the equipment ever to make contact with the outpost again.

To install new gear, including a monoblock for a new high-speed data unit that Prokopyev and Petelin put on the module, the jettisons- which also included the stanchions (or "monoblocks") that had supported the equipment on Zvezda had to be removed.

After finishing the spacewalk on Thursday, Prokopyev spent 48 hours and 40 minutes on seven extravehicular activities (EVAs). Petelin has now spent 33 hours and 9 minutes in space on five spacewalks, all of which he completed with Prokopyev.

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