June 22 (UPI) -- Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin stepped out of the International Space Station for a spacewalk to replace communications and science equipment Thursday.
The two cosmonauts left the space station at 10:20 a.m. EDT and returned inside around 4:48 p.m., NASA said in a statement.
During their nearly seven-hour spacewalk, Prokopyev and Petelin replaced science and communications gear on the station's Poisk and Zvezda modules.
"Prokopyev and Petelin completed their major objectives," NASA said.
Related
NASA is covering the spacewalk live on NASA TV.
On Wednesday, Petelin and Prokopyev prepared a timeline for the hardware replacements with the help of fellow cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev ahead of the spacewalk. NASA flight engineer Stephen Bowen helped the pair set up their space suits with lights, cameras and batteries in preparation for the spacewalk.
Later Wednesday, Fedyaev applied an anti-fungal agent to surfaces in the station's Zarya module.
United Arab Emirates Astronaut Sultan Alneyadi peddled an exercise bike while wearing sensors to monitor his blood pressure and breathing volume.
In April, Bowen and Alneyadi prepared for the installation of power upgrades and brought antenna equipment inside for upgrades during a spacewalk together.
On Wednesday, Bowen stored gear inside the Zenith-1 truss segment of the station, which is connected to the Unity module. Fellow NASA flight engineer Woody Hoburg assisted Bowen in loading and unloading cargo from the SpaceX Cargo Dragon which is docked with the station.
NASA flight engineer Frank Rubio switched out computer drives in the Columbus Laboratory Module before checking power systems inside the Quest airlock.
Thursday's scheduled spacewalk was the fifth that Prokopyev and Petelin have conducted together and the ninth this year so far for the ISS crew.
