Russian Cosmonauts Shkaplerov, Dubrov Return To ISS After More Than 7-Hour Spacewalk

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2022) Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov completed work during their spacewalk and returned to the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), according to Roscosmos broadcast.

They began work in open space at 12:18 GMT, 18 minutes later than planned. For Dubrov, who was at the station for the first time, this was already the fourth exit, for Shkaplerov, who is making his fourth space flight, it was the third exit.

The cosmonauts prepared Prichal, the newest module of the Russian segment, for spacecraft docking. They installed a new Kurs-P rendezvous and docking system antenna on it and connected the system cables between the Nauka and Prichal modules. In addition, Shkaplerov placed a docking target on the Prichal.

Also during the spacewalk, the cosmonauts released the handrails of the new module from the screen-vacuum thermal insulation that protected them during the launch.

This was done to facilitate extravehicular activities during the next spacewalks.

Dubrov also moved the television camera from one attachment point to another, now it stands at the passive docking station, looking toward the Earth. The cosmonauts also connected tv cables for inter-module communication so that in the future it would be possible to film the docking of spacecraft with the Prichal module.

Unnecessary elements, such as a container from under the docking target, were pushed away by the astronauts and thrown into outer space.

While working in open space, communication between the astronauts and the Earth was interrupted several times for more than 10 minutes. It is noteworthy that while the ground specialists were trying to get in touch with Shkaplerov and Dubrov, the cosmonauts continued to work on the exit tasks, only periodically making comments about "mysterious silence."