Russian cosmonauts conclude spacewalk and return to ISS

MOSCOW. May 4 (Interfax) - Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin have concluded their spacewalk, during which they relocated an airlock chamber to the Nauka science module using the European Robotic Arm (ERA), and have returned to the International Space Station (ISS), Roscosmos said on Thursday.

"Cosmonauts of the Roscosmos State Corporation Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, Expedition 69 members, locked the exit hatch of the Poisk small research module at 6:11 a.m. Moscow time today," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The spacewalk lasted for 7 hours and 11 minutes.

During this extravehicular activity, the cosmonauts moved the airlock chamber from the Rassvet module to the Nauka science module using the ERA, which was operated by cosmonaut Andrei Fedyayev from the ISS.

The airlock chamber could not be automatically installed at the module during docking, as, Russian Mission Control specialists believe, the capture latches malfunctioned during approach because of the airlock's uneven position. Ground specialists then decided to switch the ERA to fully manual mode, after which Prokopyev and Petelin manually evened the airlock chamber's orientation with regard to the module and successfully docked it.

The spacewalk, which began at 11:01 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, was the fifth in Prokopyev's career, and Petelin's third.

Using the airlock chamber, the Russian crew on board the ISS will be able to install equipment outside the Nauka module with the ERA's help. The robotic arm will also be able to move cargoes back to the ISS through the airlock chamber.

The autonomous mobile ERA, made by the German company Fokker Space, is a standard electromechanical tool servicing the Nauka module. Being the main robotic arm of the ISS Russian segment, it is used to install and dismantle payloads on the station's exterior, monitor the exterior's condition, and remotely control the movement of cosmonauts at a portable workplace during spacewalks.