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Spacewalk cut short by equipment failure

The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around of the orbiting lab on Nov. 8, 2021. File Photo courtesy of NASA
The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around of the orbiting lab on Nov. 8, 2021. File Photo courtesy of NASA

Aug. 17 (UPI) -- A Russian astronaut's spacewalk outside the International Space Station was cut short Wednesday after experiencing an electrical problem with his suit.

Expedition 67 commander Oleg Artemyev was ordered back to the airlock after reporting a malfunction with the battery power for his Orlan spacesuit.

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"Drop everything and start going back right away!" Vladimir Solovyov, a former cosmonaut and flight director for the space station's Russian segment, radioed to Artemyev during the spacewalk, according to Space.Com. "Oleg, go back and connect to station power."

NASA officials said during a livestream that Artemyev was never in any danger, but had his spacesuits power cut off completely, he would have lost the ability to communicate with Denis Matveev, his fellow spacewalker.

Artemyev and Matveev were installing two cameras on the new European robotic arm, which is located on the Russian-controlled portion of the space station. Once it is fully installed, it will move equipment and payloads.

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