MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. The small-size synthetic radar communications system that was installed on the Nauka module by Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolay Chub during their spacewalk has failed to be fully unfolded both automatically and manually, according to the broadcast on the Russian space corporation’s website.
During their extravehicular activity, the cosmonauts installed the radar on the multipurpose laboratory module Nauka to monitor the Earth's surface, but failed to unfold it automatically. Chub tried to place the radar’s panels in the right position manually but after several botched attempts, a specialist at the mission control center told the cosmonauts to wind up and return to the International Space Station (ISS).
According to a spokesman for the Houston-based mission control center, cosmonauts will try to resolve this problem during their next spacewalk. The radar, in his words, is not impairing the space station’s operation.
The first spacewalk of the ISS-70 expedition and the sixth one in 2023 is carried out to examine the place of the coolant leak from Nauka’s radiator. The spacewalk began at 8:49 p.m. Moscow time and was expected to last for six hours and 52 minutes.