Cosmonauts transfer airlock between ISS modules

May 4 (UPI) -- Russian Roscosmos cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin completed a spacewalk Wednesday to transfer an equipment airlock from one module of the International Space Station to another.

While Prokopyev and Petelin were outside assisting, a third cosmonaut, Andrey Fedyaev, stayed inside the station to operate the European Robotic Arm to move the airlock from the station's Rassvet module to the Nauka science module.

Prokopyev and Petelin started their task by disconnecting six cables from the airlock at the Rassvet module before moving over to the Nauka module to assist Fedyaev as he moved the airlock to its new location.

As Fedyaev moved the airlock to the Nauka, he was initially unable to get the latches to engage. Prokopyev and Petelin then assisted Fedyaev by holding the airlock in place and eventually the latches worked nominally.

Prokopyev and Petelin then attached six cables to the airlock at its new location after cutting tape that was discovered on the connector caps.

During the spacewalk, the cosmonauts also gathered redundant equipment that will be jettisoned from the station.

The spacewalk lasted a total of 7 hours and 11 minutes.

Last month, Prokopyev and Petelin completed a spacewalk to transfer a radiator from the Rassvet module to the Nauka science module.

The airlock will be used to launch Russian satellites and experiments from its new location.

A previous scheduled attempt to move the module was postponed "due to the need for a more detailed study of its tasks," according to Roscosmos.

The cosmonauts are scheduled to conduct another spacewalk on May 12 to attach a radiator to the Nauka science module and to connect hydraulic and electrical lines.