Two Russian cosmonauts are back inside the International Space Station after conducting a spacewalk to set up an experiment on semiconductor materials, as well as recover and jettison a no longer needed camera from outside the orbiting complex.
Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Alexey Zubritsky, both of the Russian Federal Space Corporation. Roscosmosmarked the end of their first extravehicular activity (EVA) together at 7:19 p.m. EDT (11:19 p.m. GMT) Thursday, October 16. The two cosmonauts entered the Poisk module’s airlock and closed the hatch behind them, 6 hours and 9 minutes after the start of the mission. spacewalk to 1:10 p.m. EDT (5:10 p.m. GMT).
After setting up their tools, the two teammates headed to their first job site, outside the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Ryzhikov latched onto the Ekran-M, or molecular beam epitaxy, experiment while at the tip of the European Robotic Arm (ERA), piloted by cosmonaut Oleg Platonov from a workstation inside the space station.
Ryzhikov and Zubritsky installed the drum-shaped unit, ran the power cables and mounted an exchangeable cassette. The experiment aims to demonstrate the ability to produce very thin materials, too thin to be manufactured reliably. Earth — this can range from microgravity outer space environment for use in semiconductors.
Their primary task complete, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky then headed to the Zvezda service module to remove and dispose of a high-definition television system that was originally part of a Canadian commercial payload. Zubritsky then positioned himself at the end of the European robotic arm and threw the camera overboard, toward the rear of the space station, ensuring that it would not come into contact with the outpost again.
“It’s going so well,” Zubritsky said over the radio as the camera disappeared into Earth’s shadow. “The drop is complete.”
Given its relatively low mass (180 pounds, or 82 kilograms) and volume (2 feet by 4.6 by 2.3 feet, or 0.6 by 1.4 by 0.7 meters), the dropped equipment will fall back to Earth and be destroyed upon re-entry into the atmosphere. the atmosphere.
Ryzhikov and Zubritsky also cleaned a window in the service module before returning to the Poisk module, retrieving samples of exposed materials to take back with them to the space station.
Thursday’s spacewalk was the second for Expedition 73 and the 276th in support of International Space Stationsince 1998. It was Zubritsky’s first EVA and the second for Ryzhikov, who has now clocked 12 hours and 57 minutes during his two spacewalks.
