All news

Petelin, Prokopyev to make at least three spacewalks — program director

The dates to be known later

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, whose expedition to the ISS has been extended, are scheduled to make at least three spacewalks, the Roscosmos executive director for crewed space programs, Sergey Krikalyov, told TASS on Wednesday on the sidelines of an event timed for Cosmonautics Day at the State Kremlin Palace.

"At least three more are due," Krikalyov said in response to a question about how many more spacewalks Prokopyev and Petelin were to perform.

The dates will be known later.

"They will have to eliminate the backlog, as some previous extravehicular activities were suspended due to emergencies," Krikalyov explained.

The mission of Roscosmos cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio was extended due to a leak from the external loop of the thermal control system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. The incident occurred on December 15 before a spacewalk. A decision was made to postpone extravehicular activities. After analyzing the situation, the state commission decided to bring back the damaged Soyuz in a crewless mode and return the cosmonauts, whose mission was extended by several months, in the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft.