ISS Spacewalkers Deploy Nanosatellite, Install and Retrieve Science

Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev deploys the Chasqui 1 nanosatellite outside the Pirs docking compartment near the beginning of Monday's spacewalk. 

Image courtesy NASA TV.

Two Expedition 40 spacewalkers, clad in Russian Orlan spacesuits, wrapped up a 5-hour, 11-minute excursion outside the International Space Station at 3:13 p.m. EDT Monday.

Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev deployed a small science satellite, retrieved and installed experiment packages and inspected components on the exterior of the orbital laboratory.

Shortly after the spacewalk began at

10:02 a.m., Artemyev manually deployed Chasqui 1, a Peruvian nanosatellite designed to take pictures of the Earth with a pair of cameras and transmit the images to a ground station.

The project is part of an effort by the National University of Engineering in Peru to gain experience in satellite technology and emerging information and communication technologies.

The spacewalkers installed the EXPOSE-R2 experiment package, a European Space Agency-sponsored suite of experiments, on the exterior of the Zvezda service module.

The package includes two astrobiology studies that will investigate biomaterials and extremophiles - organisms that are tolerant of environmental extremes.

Results from these experiments may contribute to life-detection strategies for future robotic exploration of Mars.

While on the conical section of Zvezda, they attached a handrail clamp holder for the Automatic Phased Array antenna.

Skvortsov and Artemyev set up that communication systems antenna during their first spacewalk on June 19.

The cosmonauts also set up the Plume Impingement and Deposit Monitoring unit on the Poisk Mini Research Module-2.

Skvortsov and Artemyev retrieved several science packages designed to expose a variety of materials to the harsh environment of space.

While on Poisk, they removed one cassette and install another on a materials experiment known by its Russian acronym SKK. The spacewalkers also retrieved a panel of sample materials from the Vinoslivost payload.

The retrieval of a Biorisk experiment container outside Pirs completed the science package roundup for the two cosmonauts. Biorisk studies the effects of microbes on spacecraft structures.

Skvortsov and Artemyev also collected residue samples from a window on Zvezda.

During the spacewalk, Commander Steve Swanson was isolated to the Poisk module and his Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft docked there due to the closure of hatches in support of the excursion. Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev arrived at the station March 27 aboard that Soyuz.

Russian ISS EVA: Spacewalkers stumped by faulty equipment

A pair of Russian cosmonauts on a spacewalk Thursday ran into equipment trouble while trying to swap an old laser experiment for a new telescope mount at the International Space Station and had to give up.

They were making their second spacewalk in under a week.

Ultimately, Russian Mission Control told Fyodor Yurchikhin and Aleksandr Misurkin to give up and bring the telescope platform back inside.

"We have different objectives. We cannot spend a lot of time here," one of the cosmonauts said.

The spacewalkers' remaining chore: inspecting six antennas attached to Russia's main space station compartment.

On Monday, an antenna cover came off and floated away. Russian space officials want to know which antenna lost its protective shield.

The spacewalkers also were checking the remaining covers to make sure they're secure. At least two were loose, one by a lot.

Unable to get enough leverage to properly use a screw driver, the cosmonauts could not tighten one of the covers.

Aleksandr Misurkin

The U.S. space agency said the flyaway cover posed no risk to the space station.

NASA, meanwhile, has suspended all U.S. spacewalks while the investigation into last month's near-drowning continues.

An Italian astronaut's helmet filled with water during a spacewalk on July 16. He barely made it back inside. The water is believed to have originated from the suit's cooling system.

Early in Thursday's spacewalk, Russian Mission Control jokingly blared a few seconds of pop music into the cosmonauts' headsets.

"You want to keep the music on the loop?" Mission Control asked. "Well, if it's possible, yes," one of the spacewalkers replied.

"Are you already that tired of me that you want to listen to music instead of my voice?" Mission Control teased.

The reply from orbit: "Please, we never get tired of you."

The swiveling platform was to hold an optical telescope that will be launched in November and installed by spacewalking cosmonauts.

This was the 173rd spacewalk at the space station, coming up on the 15th anniversary of the launch of its first part.

The four other space station residents—two Americans, one Italian and another Russian—watched the spacewalk from inside.

As for the defective spacesuit of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA said it will return part or all of the outfit early next year on a commercial SpaceX capsule.