Accompanied by the very experienced Oleg Artemyev, the Italian from the European Space Agency (ESA) left on July 21, 2022 on the sides of the Russian module Nauka. Together, the two astronauts dropped various nanosatellites before taking care of the European robotic arm, the ERA.
More than 7 busy hours!
One outing, many questions
In recent years, spacewalks on the Russian side of the station had become exclusively Russian, with the latter being the beneficiaries of work carried out on the sides of their modules outside the International Space Station. However, it was not always so, and it was common in the early years of the ISS to see joint exits.
The Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, who is on her second long-term stay in orbit, had prepared herself before takeoff for this outing, in particular during training in the swimming pool and in the Russian Orlan spacesuit. Despite the tensions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine since last February, but also the threats of the former director of Roscosmos, this joint exit took place. ESA is indeed directly concerned, since for the 3e consecutively, a significant portion of the release involves European hardware being launched and installed on the side of the Russian Nauka module, the ERA or European Robotic Arm.
Airdrops and Installations
On the occasion of her release, Samantha Cristoforetti also became the first European woman to perform a spacewalk. The program was not lightened, however, with the opening of the Poisk airlock at 4:50 p.m. (Paris).
The first part of the trip, lasting about 2 hours, was dedicated to the preparation and ejection by hand of ten small satellites in CubeSat 3U format (10 x 10 x 30 cm), at the service of the universities of Kursk and Ryazan . A task that requires a lot of concentration, these “satellite launches” leaving little room for error, even if it is a regular exercise for Russian cosmonauts in EVA. Oleg Artemyev, who left the ISS for the 6e times, is a regular of the genre!
The two participants then joined the bottom of the Nauka module to work on the interface of the ERA arm, but also on the installation of a hooking plate so that the latter could extend and one day reach the module in extension. Rassviet.
At the end of the marathon
If the two astronauts could not complete all the long list of tasks assigned to them (which is common, especially on the Russian side), this EVA sortie will remain as a success. All the same, they remained in the vacuum of space for 7 hours and 5 minutes… A long period which will require them to recover: an outing is always an intense physical and mental exercise!
It remains to be seen whether Europeans and Russians will plan a second joint EVA by September and the end of the current expedition (which will no doubt depend on the performance of the arm). There are still several exits for the Nauka module to be considered fully operational. This was already the fourth this year involving cosmonauts.
Source : Nasaspaceflight
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