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Two cosmonauts have opened a new door on the outside of the International Space Station while preparing to replace a two-decade-old Russian docking compartment.
Sergey Ryzhikov, commander of the space station’s Expedition 64 crew, and flight engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, both of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, began a 6-hour and 48-minute spacewalk on Wednesday (November 18), ushering in the use of the Poisk module as an airlock. Previously, Poisk (Russian for “Research”) – also referred to as Mini Research Module-2 or MRM-2 – had only been used as a port for the manned Soyuz and the robotic space freighter Progress to dock at the space station.
The space walk (extravehicular activity, or EVA) began at 10:12 am EST (1512 GMT) with the first opening of the Poisk airlock hatch. The space suit cosmonauts, still inside the module, then closed the hatch and partially repressurized Poisk to verify that the seals on the previously unused door were airtight.
Related: The International Space Station: inside and out (infographic)
With this confirmed, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov drove Poisk back into the void and opened the hatch again, this time to work outside the station.
“Well, congratulations, you’re out!” Ryzhikov told Kud-Sverchkov that he was the first to leave Poisk about an hour after the spacewalk began. Both cosmonauts were making their first EVA.
The primary goal of the spacewalk was the transfer of a telemetry cable from the adjacent Pirs docking compartment to Poisk. Launched in 2001, the Pirs module (Russian for “Pier”) is expected to be separated from the station and deorbited by a Progress cargo vehicle in 2021, paving the way for the addition of the “Science” (in Russian “Science”) Right after the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM).
The Pirs compartment was previously used by 44 pairs of astronauts as the main airlock on the Russian segment of the space station before switching to using Poisk on Wednesday.
The relocated cable, which supports the Transit-B radio telemetry system used to relay communications during spacewalks, was first installed by cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin during the first EVA to use Pirs on October 8, 2001 It was moved Wednesday from the interface between the Zvezda service module and the Pirs docking bay to the interface between Zvezda and Poisk MRM-2.
In addition to moving the cable, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov he also attempted to replace a fluid regulator outside the Zarya service module. The device had been installed since the module was launched 22 years and two days ago on November 20, 1998.
The new regulator, which would have improved the flow of fluids through the module’s plumbing, was taken outside the station in a pressurized container, and the cosmonauts were unable to free a bolt to open it. After an hour of trying, they were instructed by mission control to abandon the installation.
Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov managed to recover and install the hardware used to measure space debris impacts, and have repositioned an instrument that is used to measure residue from engine ignitions.
The spacewalk ended with Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov returning to Poisk and closing the hatch at 5pm EST (2200 GMT). NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, an Expedition 64 flight engineer, helped cosmonauts prepare and wrap the EVA from inside the station.
Ryzhikov, as a member of the extravehicular 1 (EV1) crew for the EVA, wore a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes. Kud-Sverchkov, like EV2, wore a blue striped suit. Although a first for both men, this spacewalk was the 47th Russian EVA in support of the assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station since 2001.
Overall, it was the 232nd spacewalk in support of the space station and the eighth completed this year.
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