Roscosmos cosmonauts (from left) Denis Matveev and Oleg Artemyev are pictured working outside the station’s Russian segment during the first spacewalk on April 18, 2022, to outfit Nauka and configure the European robotic arm. Credit: NASA
Two Roscosmos cosmonauts conducted a spacewalk to activate the new European Robotic Arm (ERA) less than a day after the SpaceX Crew-4 mission arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). The next major mission event taking place will occur next week when four Expedition 67 astronauts complete their stay aboard the orbiting lab.
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev exited the station in their Orlan spacesuits at 10:58 a.m. EDT on Thursday, April 28, beginning the fifth spacewalk of the year. Fellow cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov assisted the spacewalkers from inside the ISS’s Russian segment as they released the ERA from its launch restraints on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module and monitored the new robotic arm’s first motion.
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule is seen after docking to the International Space Station while the station was orbiting 261 statute miles above the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA
The day before, the SpaceXCommonly known as SpaceX, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is a private American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company that was founded by Elon Musk in 2002. Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, the company designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>SpaceX Dragon Freedom crew ship, carrying four Crew-4 astronauts, docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 7:37 p.m. EDT on April 27. Less than two hours later, NASAEstablished in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It's vision is "To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity."” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, entered the ISS beginning a four-and-a-half month research mission aboard the space station. The 11-person crew will live and work together until next week when the SpaceX Crew-3 mission ends.
Station Commander Tom Marshburn along with Flight Engineers Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, all NASA astronauts, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, are packing up to end their stay on the orbiting lab. The four astronauts representing the Commercial Crew Program are finalizing a six-month science mission aboard the space lab. NASA and SpaceX mission managers are planning for the quartet to enter the Dragon Endurance crew ship and undock from Harmony’s forward port for a splashdown off the coast of Florida next week.
Source: SciTechDaily
