MOSCOW, April 24 The spacewalk of Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin from the International Space Station has been postponed from April 26 to early May due to the fact that more details need to be worked out the tasks of the upcoming work, the press service of Roskosmos told reporters on Monday.
«The exit, previously scheduled for April 26, 2023, has been postponed, tentatively, to early May due to the need for a more detailed study of its tasks,» the report says. At the same time, it is noted that regular preparations for the exit continue.
During the exit, Prokopiev and Petelin will have to ensure the transfer of the airlock using the ERA manipulator from the Rassvet module and its docking to the Nauka Multifunctional Laboratory Module (MLM). The airlock is designed to transport payloads overboard the ISS with the help of a manipulator and return them inside the station in the interests of the applied scientific research program.
The last time Prokopiev and Petelin went into outer space on April 19, then they transferred a radiation heat exchanger from Rassvet to Nauka, which, like the lock chamber, is needed for further scientific experiments.
Before that, Russian cosmonauts worked outside the ISS on November 17, 2022. The next release has been postponed several times. Originally scheduled for November 25, it was postponed due to comments on the operation of the cooling system of one of the spacesuits. On December 15, it was not possible to conduct it due to the depressurization of the thermal control system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. It was decided to postpone the launch until the new Soyuz MS-23 arrived to replace it.