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A Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA) worked together outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, according to NASA, marking the first time in 23 years that a European has participated in a spacewalk operated by Russia.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti went into space for seven hours and installed a robotic arm on one of the space station’s modules and deployed 10 nanosatellites designed to collect radio electronics data during the spacewalk.
This was the sixth spacewalk for Artemyev and the first for Cristoforetti, who has now become the fourth ESA astronaut and the first European woman to perform a spacewalk in a Russian spacesuit, he said NASA.
Spacewalks are a routine endeavor on the ISS, but typically involve two Americans or Europeans, one American and one European, or two Russians working together, according to CNN.
The last time a European astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut left the ISS together was in April 1999.