Despite struggling with some stubborn equipment, a pair of Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station was able to fit a new antenna and complete several other tasks in a marathon seven-hour spacewalk.
Flight engineers Oleg Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov moved out into space from one of the ISS airlocks around 10 a.m. EDT June 19 to perform some work on the station's Russian Zvezda service module.
The spacewalk -- the first for both men -- was not without difficulties, as balky locking clamps on a communications antenna caused them problems.
"We almost have it. Almost there," one of the cosmonauts said as he struggled to complete the job. "I would like to have a third arm."
While two locks went into place, a third resisted all attempts to close it, leading the space walkers to resort to a wire tie to finally fasten the recalcitrant antenna to the module.
Once that was accomplished the cosmonauts moved on to other tasks including moving a science experiment, inspecting the module's latches, and taking samples of a residue collecting on the module's windows for subsequent analysis.
During the spacewalk, Mission Control near Moscow kept in constant touch with the cosmonauts, urging them to take frequent breaks to avoid exhaustion.
"Resting is most important," Mission Control advised over the radio link in Russian.
So that ground controllers could tell the cosmonauts apart in video observation of the spacewalk, Skvortsov wore a suit with red stripes, while Artemyev's suit had blue stripes on it.
Both have been on the space station for 3 months along with NASA astronaut and station commander Steve Swanson.
They were joined by three new crew members May 28, including NASA's Reid Wiseman, who's been actively documenting his experiences on Twitter.
"Pretty neat up here right now -- two Russian crewmates are spacewalking, but business as usual for me and @astro_alex," Wiseman tweeted, referring to astronaut Alexander Gerst with the European Space Agency.
"Just changed a light bulb. FYI -- only one astronaut (and a small ground team) required," he had joked earlier on his Twitter feed.
The space station's current crew complement includes two Americans, three Russians and German astronaut Gerst.
In August the two Americans are scheduled to undertake a spacewalk of their own, while Artemiev and Skvortsox have another scheduled for that same month.
The International Space Station, a $100 billion orbiting research laboratory, is staffed and operated cooperatively by 15 nations.
