Russian cosmonauts return to ISS after spacewalk
KOROLYOV, near Moscow. Aug 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev completed a five-hour spacewalk in the early hours of Tuesday, a source with the Russian mission control center in Korolyov told Interfax-AVN.
"The spacewalk has ended," the source said.
The spacewalk lasted one hour less than it was planned but the cosmonauts completed every task.
Skvortsov and Artemyev, who wore Orlan-MK space suits designed and manufactured by the Zvezda enterprise, based in Tomilino, Moscow region, returned to the International Space Station (ISS) via the Pirs docking compartment.
The first task of the spacewalk was to manually launch an NS-1 nano-satellite. The cosmonauts also installed the Expose-R research equipment on the Zvezda service module and put up a latch on the outboard unit of an active phased array antenna (AFAR) on the same module.
The outboard AFAR unit was installed during a spacewalk on June 19 for communications between the ISS and the Earth via Luch relay satellites.
One more assignment was to take a wipe sample from an illuminator of a working compartment as part of a test experiment which involves chemical, toxicological and microbiological tests of samples from the station's exterior surface in order to evaluate the danger of contamination and possibly adjust safety measures.
Other tasks were to install a pressure and deposit control unit on the Poisk mini-research module, and replace a removable cassette of container No. 1-M2 with removable cassettes of container No. 2-M2 on this module.
Skvortsov and Artemyev also removed a 2a panel installed on Poisk as part of the Endurance experiment and remove the third Biorisk-MSN container in the Pirs docking compartment.
The two cosmonauts took pictures of the thermal insulation blanket on the external surface of the ISS' Russian segment to check it for possible damage.
The NS-1 satellite is to test the platform and principal electronic modules of nano instruments under the RadioSkaf space education program, which is overseen by the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation.
The satellite is cube-shaped with 10 by 10 centimeter sides and can send Morse code telegraph signals, photos recorded in its memory, pictures from its own cameras if commanded from Earth, and telemetric data such voltage and the temperatures of all its units, to Earth.
The Endurance panel was installed on the ISS' outer surface last year and replaced a panel that had been lost during one of the spacewalks by Russian cosmonauts. The goal of the Endurance experiment is to evaluate effects of space factors on the strain, strength and fatigue characteristics of the materials of samples in loaded and non-loaded exposures. Exposure equipment weighing a total of 11 kilograms is being used in the experiment.
The Biorisk experiment aims to study the effects of space flight on microorganisms and substrata.
The ISS' current crew are, besides Skvortsov and Artemyev, NASA astronauts Steven Swanson (the crew commander) and Gregory Wiseman, Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, and Russian Maksim Surayev.
The station's Russian segment is overseen by Energia.
Monday's spacewalk is the current Russian program's 46th and the 153rd spacewalk from the ISS. It is this year's third spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts and the fourth spacewalk from the ISS this year (the fourth was by U.S. astronauts). It is also the 370th spacewalk in space exploration history and the 142nd spacewalk using Russian spacesuits.
Before the end of this year there will one more Russian spacewalk on October 22 and another two by American astronauts.