Cosmonauts Begin Spacewalk To Move Roscosmos Radiator on Space Station

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin conduct a six-hour and 25-minute spacewalk on November 17, 2022,  in their Orlan spacesuits to transfer a radiator from the Rassvet module to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module for future installation. The duo is pictured tethered to the Rassvet module with the Soyuz MS-22 crew ship docked at top. Credit: NASA

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin exit the Poisk module‘s airlock to begin a spacewalk at 9:40 p.m. EDT (6:40 p.m. PDT) to relocate a radiator from the Rassvet module to the Nauka science module with assistance from European robotic arm operator cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Coverage of the spacewalk continues on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

Prokopyev is wearing an Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, while Petelin is wearing the suit with blue stripes. This is the fourth spacewalk in Prokopyev’s career, and the second for Petelin. It is the third spacewalk at the station in 2023 and the 260th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Expedition 69 Commander Sergey Prokopyev (left) is conducting his fifth career spacewalk. Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin (right) is conducting his third spacewalk. Credit: NASA

Before the spacewalk, the Expedition 69 cosmonauts spent the day sleeping to rest up for the  logistics spacewalk. Meanwhile, the rest of the International Space Station crew continued cleaning biology research hardware, conducted an eye and brain study, and serviced a pair of spacesuits.

While all three cosmonauts rested, the orbital outpost’s four astronauts were busy with science and spacesuit work on Tuesday. The foursome split its time throughout the day maintaining science hardware, studying how microgravity affects their eyes and brain, and cleaning spacesuits.

NASA Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Stephen Bowen worked together Tuesday cleaning up the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) located in the Kibo laboratory module. The CBEF housed biological samples that were returned to Earth inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft several hours after it undocked from the station at 11:05 a.m.  Saturday. Those samples and more will be analyzed by scientists on Earth to continue learning how living in weightlessness affects the human body.

Rubio later checked out the KERMIT fluorescence microscope that supports biology, physics, and materials research. Bowen joined NASA Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg at the end of the day for eye exams that are part of the ISAFE study that measures eye, brain, and blood vessel changes in space.

Hoburg began his day checking cooling loops and collecting water samples from inside an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), or spacesuit. UAE (United Arab Emirates) Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi continued the EMU maintenance as he recharged and filled water tanks in the suits. The spacesuit work is being done in advance of a spacewalk planned for Friday, April 28, to continue upgrading the station’s power generation capability.