Russian astronauts back to ISS from many-hour spacewalk
KOROLYOV (Moscow region). June 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian astronauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin have completed their spacewalk and returned to the International Space Station (ISS) through the Pirs module airlock chamber, an Interfax-AVN correspondent reported from the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolyov.
"The astronauts are back on the ISS," the Center told Interfax-AVN.
The spacewalk duration exceeded six hours. Earlier Yurchikhin made five spacewalks with the total duration of 32 hours. It was the first spacewalk for Misurkin.
The astronauts replaced panel No 2 in the liquid flow regulator of the Zarya functional and cargo module and installed racks for power cables and the Indicator equipment for the Control experiment on the Poiks small research module.
They dismantled the Vynoslivost experiment panel from the exterior of the Poisk module. The panel was supposed to stay on the Poisk exterior for another year but Russian astronaut Pavel Vinogradov dropped a panel installed earlier during his spacewalk in April and researchers asked to deliver this one.
The Vynoslivost experiment studies the influence of space factors on deformation, durability and fatigue of burdened and non-burdened samples. The experiment samples and equipment weigh eleven kilograms.
The astronauts dismantled the scientific equipment of Photon-Gamma from the universal work place on the Zvezda module and tested the Kurs equipment.
Numerous spacewalks have been planned from the ISS for the next few months. U.S. astronaut Christopher Cassidy and European astronaut Luca Parmitano will go on spacewalks on July 9 and 16. Misurkin and Yurchikhin will go on spacewalks again on August 15 and 21.
