Two Russian astronauts spacewalked outside the International Space Station earlier today on August 18, releasing a small Peruvian satellite that will orbit and collect data on Earth.
The two astronauts, Oleg Artemiev and Alexander Skvortsov, walked out of the ISS to release the satellite. The 4-inch, two pound nanosatellite is part of a Peruvian research project. It was released at a height of 260 miles above Earth. While Artemiev released the satellite, Skvortsov recorded the event on his helmet's camera. He recorded as the satellite fell away from the space station.
"One, two, three," someone from the ground said in Russian, counting down as Artemiev released the satellite.
The nanosatellite was named Chasqui after the highly trained Inca runners who were part of the Incan Empire. It has instruments that will record temperature and pressure and photograph the Earth. It comes from scientists at the National University of Engineering in Lima, Peru. The satellite was brought to the ISS earlier this year by a cargo spacecraft from Russia.
The satellite's release had been thoroughly tested on the ground before the ISS release was attempted.
"The operation is simple enough: when we egress into the open space, Alexander will hand the satellite over to me and I shall let it float," Artemiev said.
NASA provided an animated simulation explaining how the satellite's launch would be attempted. You can watch it here.
After the duo had released the satellite, Artemiev and Skvortsov installed new science experiments on the outside of the Russian side of the ISS, and brought back old experiments. "Be careful," a member from Russian Mission Control warned the two as they navigated the spacecraft's exterior.
The entire spacewalk lasted five hours and 11 minutes as Artemiev and Skvortsov secured new experiments to the spacecraft. The mission ended at 3:13 p.m. EDT.
Artemiev and Skvortsov also did a spacewalk in June. The U.S. had put their spacewalks on hiatus for a year while NASA investigated a spacesuit malfunction that almost killed Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano last summer. NASA has now improved the safety of their spacesuits and was hoping to resume spacewalks, but the hiatus was extended to the fall as they wait for a shipment of new batteries for the suits. They are expecting a new shipment from SpaceX sometime in September which will have the batteries.
The ISS operates by receiving periodic shipments of goods from spacecraft launched from Earth. The crew aboard the ship recently detached a Cygnus spacecraft that had been attached to the ship for several months. Scientists are studying controlled reentry of spacecraft to prepare for the ISS eventually coming down, probably in about one or two decades.
