Two cosmonauts were back in action Friday (Sept. 2), more than making up for an interrupted spacewalk two weeks ago.
Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev easily surpassed their assigned spacewalk tasks during a 7-hour, 47-minute spacewalk from the International Space Station that began on at 9:25 a.m. EDT (1325 GMT).
“You completed more than you set out to do! Very productive,” a Moscow Mission Control representative told the cosmonauts just after the hatch closed. (The broadcast was in Russian; interpretation was available in English on NASA Television.)
Working up to an hour, 10 minutes ahead of schedule, Artemyev and Matveev finished numerous tasks to set up the European robotic arm and finished a breakthrough task to extend the long Strela crane between the Poisk and FGB modules in the complex orbiting russian side
“These booms have a lot of inertia,” commented one of the mid-span spacewalkers.
In pictures: The most memorable spacewalks in history
Artemyev and Matveev had to return to the fence in the early hours of August 17 after one of the Orlan spacesuits experienced a battery problem. (NASA did not disclose how Roscosmos assessed the problem or decided to continue the spacewalks; the spacesuits had no power problems this time.)
On today’s excursion, the remaining tasks were quickly completed, including installing a work platform on the Nauka module, setting up a control panel and the “end effector” grab arm and isolation maneuver between locations, among other tasks.
In addition to the boom extension, a key spacewalk goal was achieved when spacewalkers successfully tested a mechanism intended to help the arm pick up payloads of more than nine tons in space.
The cosmonauts also had a few moments to gaze upon Earth, including witnessing devastating wildfires and smoke over California. “You can see these wildfires. That’s impressive,” one of the spacewalkers commented shortly before 11:20 a.m. EDT (1520 GMT), during the second hour of extravehicular activity.
Related: Satellites Watch Europe Dry in Devastating Drought
On their previous outing on August 17th, lasting 2.5 hours, the duo did enough work for European controllers to make the first move on the arm on August 24th.
“This first move involved releasing the payload (a single-pin latch and its adapter for the Cosmonaut Support Tool) from Nauka, moving it to the other side of the module, and then installing – it to its original position,” European Space Agency officials said. (opens in a new tab). (Nauka is the Russian module with which the arm launched into space in July 2021.)
The arm moved a payload about the size of a small suitcase during the test, but when fully ready, it will be able to carry payloads with a mass of almost 9 tons. Controllers plan a more ambitious arm test in mid-September to evaluate brakes, joint movement, force control and camera image quality.
Friday’s spacewalk was the eighth spacewalk for Artemyev and the fourth for Matveev, NASA said. It was also the eighth to the ISS in 2022 and the 253 to support its assembly and maintenance since 1998, according to data from previous spacewalks.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace (opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or Facebook (opens in a new tab).