Russian Cosmonauts Venture Outside ISS To Inspect Hole In Soyuz MS-09

Daniyal Sohail Published December 11, 2018 | 10:16 PM

Russian cosmonauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopyev began on Tuesday a six-hour spacewalk to inspect and seal a tiny hole in the hull of the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the ISS.

KOROLEV (outside MOSCOW) (UrduPoint news / Sputnik - 11th December, 2018) Russian cosmonauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopyev began on Tuesday a six-hour spacewalk to inspect and seal a tiny hole in the hull of the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the ISS.

In late August, the ISS crew detected an insignificant air leak, caused by a microfracture on a wall of the living section of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, docked to the ISS. The hole was patched on the same day to restore the hermetic integrity of the ISS.

Kononenko is expected to open the thermal blanket covering the patched hole and take samples that will be later studied by ground experts. He will then re-seal the hole with a new thermal insulation patch.

The end of spacewalk is expected at 01:15 Moscow time on December 12 (22:15 December 11 GMT).