Russian cosmonauts complete spacewalk, return to ISS

MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) - Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner have completed their spacewalk, during which they installed and dismantled scientific equipment on the outer surface of the International Space Station (ISS), the Roscosmos state space corporation said on Friday.

"International Space Station Expedition 72 crewmembers, Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner closed the hatch to the airlock on the Poisk mini-research module at 1:53:40 a.m. Moscow time today," Roscosmos said in a statement published on its Telegram channel.

Ovchinin and Vagner installed an X-ray spectrometer on the Zvezda module for the All-Sky Monitor experiment, removed two pieces of the Test experiment's material exposure equipment and two panels of the Endurance experiment and dismantled the Control experiment's scientific equipment.

The cosmonauts also used the European Robotic Arm (ERA) during the spacewalk, with Ovchinin taking a ride at the end of the ERA to jettison spent equipment. The ERA was operated by another Russian cosmonaut, Alexander Gorbunov, who was inside the ISS.

However, due to time constraints, the cosmonauts did not relocate the ERA's exterior control panel, currently installed on the Nauka multi-purpose module.

The spacewalk, which began at 6:36 p.m. Moscow time on Thursday, lasted for 7 hours and 17 minutes.

It was Ovchinin's second spacewalk, and Vagner's first.