Cosmonauts complete all tasks on spacewalk

Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev spent 6 hours and 5 minutes outside the space station, conducting an extravehicular activity (EVA) that ran from 10:18 a.m. to 4:23 p.m. EDT (1418 to 2023 GMT) on Wednesday (May 27).

The two spacewalkers installed the Solntse-Teragerts telescope outside Zvezda to observe and collect data about strong solar flares emanating from the Sun. The instrument will help scientists improve their prediction models and better understand solar flare activity at different frequencies. The device is expected to operate through 2028.

They then rode at one end of the European Robotic Arm (ERA) to retrieve a cassette holding semiconducting material produced by an experiment mounted outside of the Nauka mini-research module. The Ekran-M molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) experiment uses gallium arsenide to form ultra-pure, ultra-thin films that can only be borne under the microgravity environment of space.

The cosmonauts ran into some difficulty retrieving the cassette, including losing a pair of pliers and commands sent from the ground failing to move the experiment's interior mechanisms, but with some workarounds, they were able to collect the sample for its return inside the station.

The two cosmonauts then moved over to the Poisk module to inspect, photograph and secure one of the Kurs rendezvous antennas on the Progress MS-33 (ISS 94P) cargo spacecraft. The antenna failed to deploy when the vehicle launched to the space station in March, resulting in a manually-controlled docking.

Wrapping up the EVA, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev retrieved a Biorisk science container holding samples of bacteria, seeds and other organisms and then jettisoned a bundle of used window cleaners before heading back inside the space station.

The spacewalk was the second EVA for Kud-Sverchkov and the first for Mikaev. Kud-Sverchkov now has logged 6 hours and 6 minutes working in the vacuum of space.