Cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petlin embark on a spacewalk.

Moscow, April 19 – Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin went into outer space to transfer the coolant from one ISS module to another, and this is their first spacewalk after the “pause” due to the depressurization of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, broadcast by Roscosmos.

Earlier it was reported that Prokopiev and Petelin would have to loosen the electrical cable between the auxiliary radiant heat exchanger (cooler) and the Rassvet unit, unscrew the plug from the radiator and open the four locks with which it is connected to the unit.

After that, the coolant using the ERA manipulator, which Andrey Fedyaev will control from inside the station, will be transferred to the Nauka unit. Prokopyev and Petlin will oversee this process. After the transfer, the astronauts undo the docking plugs from the Nauka module, mechanically and hydraulically dock the radiator to the module, and also connect it using an electrical cable.

According to preliminary calculations, the duration of work in open space will be 6 hours 37 minutes.

This is the second exit for Betlin and the fourth for Prokopyev, who flew to the station in 2018. The last time they went into space on November 17, 2022 and prepared the cryogenics for transportation.

After that, the astronauts had to work outside the station four more times.

On November 25, 2022, the next planned exit was postponed due to the discovery of problems with the cooling system of one of the spacesuits. Works in outer space were postponed to December 15, however, they had to be canceled on that date due to the depressurization of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which occurred when the crew was already preparing for departure.

Later, Roskosmos came to the conclusion that the Soyuz radiator was pierced by a micrometeorite. For several months, Russian cosmonauts were left without a serviceable spacecraft in case of an emergency evacuation from the International Space Station.

On February 26, 2023, the Soyuz MS-23 docked at the International Space Station. It replaced the faulty Soyuz MS-22, which was later returned to Earth unmanned. The crew of the damaged Soyuz – Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petlin and American Frank Rubio – had to stay at the station for another six months, so that the new ship could fully work out its resources in orbit.

On March 6, the astronauts undocked the Soyuz MS-23 from the Poisk small research module to the Prichal hub in order to resume the spacewalk program.