Two Russian cosmonauts faced only minor problems during a more than six-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station, but wrapped up their tasks with a photo-worthy finish.
Sergei Volkov and Alexander Samokutyaev got a perfect view of a sunset in space and the blue Earth below, as they ended their work focused on assembling a satellite.
“This is excellent,” they said of the cosmic show, which they photographed. Problems with an antenna had hindered installation of a small satellite outside the orbiting laboratory. Volkov finally managed to get the video and radio transmitting device to work.
The 30-kilogramme satellite Kedr, named for the radio code of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, will be used as part of a UN student programme to send greetings in 15 languages.
They completed the work in six hours and 23 minutes, after exiting the station’s airlocks about 20 minutes later than planned.
The cosmonauts also placed microorganisms and mushroom spores outside as part of an experiment to monitor how biological material responds to the extremes of space. The spacewalkers are living aboard the ISS with four other crew members from Russia, the United States and Japan.
