Russian Cosmonaut Makes First Spacewalk With Foreigner in 13 Years

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti went for a spacewalk under the Russian flight program, the first time a Russian makes a joint spacewalk with a foreigner in 13 years, the broadcast is on the Roscosmos website.

The hatch of the Poisk module was opened by Cristoforetti at 17:50 Moscow time (14:50 GMT initially it was planned to be 17:00, but then the timing shifted slightly), the Italian was the first to leave the ISS. As Dmitry Akhmerov, Lead Engineer of the Extravehicular Activities Department of RSC Energia, clarified, there was nothing wrong with such a delay.

Together with Artemyev, Cristoforetti will take 10 nanosatellites from the Poisk, turn on the helmet cameras, and head for the TStM-1 cargo boom. There they will launch vehicles into orbit and continue their work.

Cristoforetti and Artemyev will have to replace the protective glass frames for the CLU-2 video camera at the end of the ERA manipulator and put the external control panel of the EMMI manipulator into storage mode. They will close the manipulator attachment systems with screen-vacuum thermal insulation, install interlocks on the cargo booms of the GTM-1 and GTM-2 and extend the second boom from the Zarya module to the Poisk.

If Artemyev and Cristoforetti have time left, they will spend a little more than an hour installing the second platform with adapters at the Nauka module.

The previous time such joint spacewalks took place on June 5 and June 10, 2009, when Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and US astronaut Michael Barratt worked together. Since then, all exits under the domestic program have been carried out only by a pair of Russian cosmonauts.