Two Russian cosmonauts complete six-hour spacewalk at International Space Station
Pilgrims urged to reduce outdoor activities at Arafah tents.
Two Russian cosmonauts successfully completed a spacewalk on Wednesday (27 May) to install and retrieve scientific equipment outside the International Space Station (ISS).
Expedition 74 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev spent six hours and five minutes outside the station, installing a solar radiation telescope on the Zvezda service module and retrieving hardware from the Poisk and Nauka modules in the Russian segment.
The Solntse-Teragerts telescope, installed on Zvezda, is designed to observe and collect data on strong solar flares and is expected to operate until 2028 to help scientists improve prediction models and understand solar activity across various frequencies.
Using the European Robotic Arm (ERA), the cosmonauts moved to the Nauka module to retrieve a cassette containing semiconductor materials from the Ekran-M experiment, which produces ultra-pure, ultra-thin layers in microgravity.
The sample retrieval faced technical issues, including lost tools and failed ground commands, but alternative solutions allowed them to secure the samples.
During the spacewalk, the crew commemorated the 80th anniversary of RKK Energia, the Roscosmos design bureau founded in August 1946, with a photo, and Kud-Sverchkov wished St. Petersburg a happy birthday, noting it was the city’s anniversary.
They later inspected and secured the Kurs guidance antenna on the Progress MS-33 cargo spacecraft, which had failed to deploy during its March launch, requiring manual docking.
Finally, they retrieved the Biorisk science container with bacterial and seed samples, disposed of used window cleaning wraps, and returned to the ISS. The mission was Kud-Sverchkov’s second spacewalk and Mikaev’s first, marking the 279th such operation since ISS maintenance began in 1998.
Two Roscosmos cosmonauts, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy, are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk on 16 October.
The damage occurred in the PrK module, a small transfer tunnel connecting the Zvezda service module to the docking port for visiting vehicles.
The ISS is approaching its retirement by 2030, but commercial replacement stations are not yet ready, posing national security risks for the US and intensifying competition with China.
The Cygnus XL spacecraft by Northrop Grumman will be launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40.
The mission aims to modernise electrical infrastructure and technical maintenance to extend the ISS’s operational life.