Risky Russian spacewalk concluded safely

Tag : Unshielded Cables

Moscow - Two Russian cosmonauts completed a perilous spacewalkafter more than six hours outside the International Space Station(ISS), successfully retrieving an explosive bolt from the Soyuzspace capsule docked in orbit. The mission by ISS Commander SergeiVolkov and flight engineer Oleg Kononenko, started shortly before1900 GMT Thursday after a 40- minute delay due to a disruption ofradio communications with mission controllers on Earth.

The retrieved bolt is to be examined later on Earth, in hopes ofrevealing why Soyuz spacecraft have been so badly off-course ontheir last two jolting flights back from orbit. Experts say it is an unorthodox mission for the Soyuz craft, dockedoutside the station. The explosive bolt is one of five meant to detonate and decouplepart of the capsule before it shuttles back to Earth. The releaseensures proper aerodynamics for the remaining capsule to re-enterthe atmosphere.

The capsules have crash landed on their last two re-entries as theSoyuz toppled out of control, though the crew have been unharmed.They landed kilometers from base out in the Kazakh steppes. The cosmonauts used a serrated knife to cut through thermal liningover the bolt, uncouple it from a mess of detonating cables, forceit out with a wrench and seal it in a blast-proof canister to sendback to Earth.

The operation is motivated by the suspicion that the targeted boltfailed to explode the last two times, throwing off the aerodynamicsof the capsule and causing the Soyuz to slam into the atmospherebackwards, hatch-first, leaving the crew unshielded from the heatof re-entry. But Russian and US experts had insisted that all possibleprecautions had been taken, and the space-walking duo were well-rehearsed. The station's only US crew member provided support fromwithin the ISS.

Experts hope to resolve the Soyuz problems before October, whenVolk and Kononenko are due to return to Earth.