Article Posted on : - Dec 23, 2008

Station commander and spacewalker Mike Fincke work outside the Pirs docking compartment in a Russian Orlan space suit. Credit: NASA TV

MOSCOW (BNS): Two International Space Station (ISS) astronauts completed their mission’s first spacewalk successfully on Tuesday.

According to NASA, Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov wound up 5-hour, 38-minute spacewalk to install an electromagnetic energy probe to detect a malfunction in the Russian module among other experiments at 1:29 am EST Tuesday.

Fincke of the US and Yury Lonchakov from Russia began the spacewalk at 7.51 pm on Monday in their Russian Orlan spacesuits from the station's Pirs docking compartment.

They also took photos. While Fincke is an experienced spacewalker and this was his fifth spacewalk, for Lonchakov, it was the maiden attempt. Overall, it was 119th spacewalk from the ISS.

The two were shown leaving the space station by a video released by NASA. "OK, going out into space again," Fincke was quoted as saying in Russian in the video feed. "It's good to be here again," he said.

Lonchakov and Fincke worked together to install the electromagnetic energy-measuring device called a Langmuir probe on Pirs. Measurements of electromagnetic energy could be helpful in the investigation of its effects on pyrotechnical separation bolts on Soyuz spacecraft.

According to the US space agency, the bolts are suspects in the investigation of ballistic – steeper than normal entries of the Expedition 15 and Expedition 16 Soyuz spacecraft.

The two also conducted an experiment to gather data on the effects of the space environment on a variety of materials.

They attacked cables and carried out the work with sun periodically rising and setting on the construction site. According to the agencies Fincke rotated solar array on the station’s Zvezda module to prevent sun from obstructing work on the construction site.

"That's 100 times better," Fincke's voice crackled over the radio, agencies reported. They reported that the spacewalkers were relaxed and seen joking around in the video feed while working.

The crew had been planning the spacewalk for some time now. Russian space agency and NASA termed it a success as the purpose of conducting the spacewalk was achieved without any problems.