The suit pumped. On the ISS, the Russians were interrupted early in open space

Denis Matveev spent 4 hours and 1 minute in open space, and his partner Oleg Artemiev - only 2. 5 hours, instead of the planned 6. 5 hours. The fact is that in the space suit "Orlan" in the commander of the 67th expedition of the ISS Oleg Artemyev suddenly had a problem with power supply.

The Russian astronaut reported fluctuations in the voltage in the battery of a spacesuit to the ground and the Russian flight management center ordered two astronauts to return to the station to connect to the power source. There was no threat to Artemyev's life, but if the power supply in his space suit was completely disconnected, he could not keep in touch with Matveyev in space or with the flight management center.

The head of the Russian MCS segment Volodymyr Solovyov personally ordered the astronaut "to leave everything and return to the station immediately. " After returning to the orbital station, Artemiev contacted the ground and suggested installing solar panels on Russian space suites. According to him, this could be avoided with such situations with charge exhaustion, because the power could be made constantly from solar energy.

In the end, only Matveev remained in space, who completed, though incomplete, work started. The purpose of entering the space of two Russian astronauts was to continue equipping the robotic ERA manipulator, created by the European Space Agency. Before the problem with the space suits, astronauts managed to install cameras on ERA, removed thermal insulation, and also conducted some other manipulations of "hands".

Astronauts did not have time to move the external manipulator control panel from one place to another, and did not conduct an ERA test launch. This will be done during the next exit open space. Once the ERA has been put into operation, it will become a third manipulator, along with Canadian Canadarm2 and Japanese Kibo, which provide maintenance of the station and support various tasks in space. Already this year, the ISS astronauts left the station to work in open space.

And since 1998, when the ISS began its work, it has already been the 252nd, albeit incomplete, output into space. As for Denis Matveyev, it was his third exit to the open space and in general in the airless space he spent 18 hours and 20 minutes. And Artemyev, who had problems with a space suit, was already 14 exit into space, where he spent 45 hours and 45 minutes. As focus wrote, Russia wanted to leave the ISS program in 2024. The new head of Roscosmos recently stated this.

The fact is that there are tense relations from the beginning of the invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine between the partner countries at the station. Russia demanded that the Western sanctions be eliminated, otherwise it will leave the ISS and the station will not be able to work properly. But later there were reports that Russia is not going anywhere and will continue to work at the ISS by at least 2028. At that time, the Russian Federation plans to build its orbital station.