On 19 April 2023 at 0140 GMT, Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin began their EVA when they opened the Poisk airlock of the ISS. With assistance from cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev who operated the European robotic arm from within, Prokopyev and Petelin relocated a radiator from the Rassvet module to the Nauka science module.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin work on relocating the radiator. Courtesy: NASA
The radiator had previously been strapped to the outside of ISS for 13 years awaiting installation. Once all objectives of the EVA had been completed the cosmonauts concluded the EVA at 0935 after 7 hours and 55 minutes.
This was Petelin’s second spacewalk and the fourth in Prokopyev’s career. This was also the third spacewalk at the ISS in 2023.
Other events on the ISS
At 0845 GMT on 6 April 2023, Soyuz MS-23 undocked from the Poisk docking module of the International Space Station. Aboard were its new crew, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio just in case they had to make an emergency return (Soyuz MS-23 was launched to the ISS in unmanned condition to replace the faulty Soyuz MS-22). The flight was a very short one as it was a simple relocation move to redock the spacecraft onto the Prichal docking module at 0921 GMT.
Diagram explaining the move of Soyuz MS-23 from Poisk to Prichal. Courtesy: Roscosmos
In a separate event on the ISS, on 15 April 2023 at 1505 GMT, Dragon CRS-27 autonomously undocked from the International Space Station’s Harmony module carrying 1,950 kg of scientific experiments and other cargo. The scientific experiments include the study of solid fuel ignition and extinction in microgravity. The results of Hicari experiment from JAXA studying growing crystals of a silicon-germanium semi-conductor which could support the development of more efficient solar cells. blood samples collected in space in the study of vascular aging, an investigation from the Canadian Space Agency and the results of the ‘Pick and eat salad-crop’ experiment. Dragon CRS-27 re-entered and t successfully splashed down off the cost of Tampa, Florida, USA at 2058 GMT on the same day.
David Todd contributed to this story
