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Russian cosmonauts complete this year’s first spacewalk

The extravehicular activity lasted 7 hours and 19 minutes, Roscosmos informed

© Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS

MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov have completed this year’s first spacewalk. Roscosmos corporation telecast their extravehicular activity live on its website.

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"The hatch of the docking compartment Poisk was closed at 16:12 Moscow time on June 2, 2021. The extravehicular activity lasted 7 hours and 19 minutes," Roscosmos tweeted.

"My congratulations," the specialist on duty at Mission Control told the crew.

Novitsky and Dubrov replaced a fluid flow regulator panel on the Zarya module. Mission Control tested the panel’s operation. The old panel was deposited in a special container and jettisoned later. Roscosmos said the container would burn completely in the Earth’s atmosphere in two or three days. The cosmonauts readied the Pirs module for separation from the ISS by disconnecting the instruments of the Kurs-P system of the Zvezda module from the Pirs module and linking it to the nadir (bottom, Earth-facing) docking compartment. This operation was carried out in order to get the ISS ready for the arrival of the multi-functional laboratory Nauka module, slated for launch in July.

Before the final operations Mission Control warned Dubrov he might have to cut short the mission and hurry back to the ISS. "Pyotr, your battery is low. If something is wrong, the ventilator may go dead. And our radio contact too," the specialist on the ground warned. He briefed Dubrov on what he should do next and cautioned him that if the battery level dropped completely he would have "to get back urgently". Yet the duo managed to complete all of their scheduled tasks to install new equipment for experiments in test materials and biological samples on the exterior of the Russian modules.

Novitsky and Dubrov were wearing Orlan space suits - one with red stripes (Novitsky) and the other with blue stripes (Dubrov). The previous spacewalk was on November 18, 2020.

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