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Russian cosmonauts complete this year's longest spacewalk

It was the sixth and the longest in 2013. The cosmonauts worked for eight hours and five minutes outside

MOSCOW, December 28, 9:25 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian cosmonauts, ISS crewmembers -- commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergei Ryazansky -- have successfully completed the last of the Russian scheduled spacewalks this year. It was the sixth and the longest in 2013. The cosmonauts worked for eight hours and five minutes outside.

During another spacewalk, on November 9, the Russian crewmembers of ISS Expedition 38/39 took a Sochi Winter Olympic torch to open space, for the first space Olympic torch relay.

For Ryazansky, it is the first space mission.

This Saturday's spacewalk was planned to last about seven hours. However, the cosmonauts worked longer outside to return the earlier installed video cameras back into the station.

The cosmonauts failed to switch on the cameras that were planned to take pictures of the earth from outside the station. Ryazansky and Kotov installed a high resolution camera (HRC) and a medium resolution camera (MRC) on the Zvezda module, but failed to connect them. There was no signal, a Mission Control Centre source said. The decision was taken to remove the cameras and return them back.

Kotov and Ryazansky wore Orlan-MK computerized spacesuits with liquid-crystal displays (LCD) on the chest that prompted them what to do.

The rest ISS crewmembers -- Russian Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Richard Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata -- ensured safe work of the colleagues from aboard.

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