Russian cosmonauts successfully complete spacewalk, return to ISS

MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin have completed a spacewalk and returned to the International Space Station (ISS), Roscosmos said in a stream.

The cosmonauts closed the exit hatch on the Poisk module of the ISS Russian segment at 12:01 a.m. Moscow time. The spacewalk lasted for 6 hours and 25 minutes. The crew prepared a radiant heat exchanger for being moved from the Rassvet module to the Nauka module by the European ERA robotic arm.

In the course of extravehicular activity (EVA 55), Prokopyev and Petelin installed a cargo boom adapter on the lock chamber's FRGF grapple fixture, bled nitrogen conservation pressure, vacuumed hydraulic circuits of the additional radiant heat exchanger, and dismantled six fasteners from it on the Rassvet module.

They also installed a blocker on the GStM-2 cargo boom and mounted large-sized object fasteners on the Nauka module.

The spacewalk began at 5:41 p.m. Moscow time on Thursday. Prokopyev and Petelin opened the exit hatch on the Poisk module in the ISS Russian segment and climbed onto the station's exterior.