European robotic arm. Credit: ESA
Budapest, 22 July 2022. – ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European female spacewalker when she left the International Space Station (ISS) with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev to complete a mission of seven hours working on the space station.
Work carried out by the pair included the installation of platforms and workstation adapter hardware in the Nauka laboratory module. They also manually deployed 10 nanosatellites to collect radio electronics data. Cristoforetti and Artemyev also prepared the 11.3-meter-long European robotic arm for operational use. The astronaut-cosmonaut duo completed their EVA (extravehicular activity) in Russian-built Orlan spacesuits. The Russian-operated spacewalk was the sixth for Artemyev and was also the sixth EVA to the ISS this year.
The two started the mission 50 minutes late, but were still able to complete all but one of the planned activities. The extension of the Strela telescopic rod from the Zarya service module to the Poisk research module had to be postponed. Mission termination was necessary due to the limitations of the spacesuit’s life support system.
Cristoforetti is the second woman to perform a Russian spacewalk, after NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. He also recently made history by using TikTok on the ISS for the first time.