Due to a technical problem, the Russian spacewalk that should have continued operations for the installation of the new European robotic arm (Era) on the International Space Station (ISS) ended earlier than expected.
The extravehicular activity (Eva), which lasted about 6 hours and 45 minutes, was interrupted after just 2 hours and 20 minutes when the cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev (head of the extravehicular activity) was forced to return for a ' anomaly in the power supply of his Orlan suit.
After an hour, the second astronaut engaged in the spacewalk, Denis Matveev, was also recalled.
The two cosmonauts have never been in danger, as has been repeated several times during the live TV broadcast by NASA, but the unexpected has compromised what was to be the fourth spacewalk dedicated to the preparation of the European robotic arm, as well as the 252nd activity extravehicular for the assembly, maintenance and updates of the ISS, the seventh of this year.
Everything seemed to proceed normally, after the two cosmonauts left the hatch of the Russian Poisk module.
In the first two hours of operation they had managed to install the cameras on the 'elbow' of the robotic arm, but then Artemyev noticed an abnormal fluctuation in the voltage of the batteries of his Orlan suit.
The cosmonaut, who in addition to directing the extravehicular activity is also the commander of Expedition 67, was repeatedly invited to return to recharge the suit to the ISS power system, while colleague Matveev remained outside to complete some cleaning operations. of the robotic arm awaiting the decision of the control center in Moscow, which called him back in an hour, ending the spacewalk early.
For Artemyev this was the second unfortunate spacewalk in a row.
On the previous July 21, he had gone out with Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) with a delay of about 50 minutes, probably due to pressurization problems in the airlock.
Consequently, the batteries of the suits had discharged a little in advance of the planned activities and even in that case it was decided to finish the Eva earlier.
At the moment the maintenance activities of the ISS are entrusted only to Russian spacewalks, because both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have suspended their extravehicular activities: the stop was decided to allow technicians to investigate the causes of the water leakage occurred last March in the suit of the German astronaut Matthias Maurer of the ESA, an accident similar to the one that happened to Luca Parmitano in 2013.
