Russian cosmonauts to re-attempt spacewalk aborted due to scary power supply glitch

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveyev will step outside the International Space Station (ISS) again on September 2 after aborting their spacewalk due to a recent mishap, TASS News reported. Scheduled for August 17, the cosmonauts dropped the assignment just two hours into the six-hour-long planned spacewalk after Artemyev’s spacesuit suffered power supply issues. 

According to NASA, which aired the spacewalk live, Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit showed abnormal readings in outer space. As soon as the glitch was reported, the mission control in Russia’s Moscow instructed him to return to the Poisk module of the ISS and connect to the space station’s power supply. 

None of the cosmonauts were in danger: NASA

NASA, however, revealed that none of the cosmonauts faced any danger during the operations. “Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov, inside the station, is placing the European robotic arm in a safe configuration, and Matveev has just returned to the Poisk airlock”, the agency said reporting the incident. “The duo was never in any danger during the operations”.

Meanwhile, the forthcoming spacewalk would be the 8th of Artemyev’s career whereas Matveyev will conduct his fourth spacewalk, also called extra-vehicular activity (EVA). 

Both the cosmonauts had stepped out of their module for the installation of two cameras on the European robotic arm (ERA) located on the Russian side of the space station. In addition to this, removing the launch restraint rings to make the ERA manipulator lighter was also one of the objectives. 

The ERA is a contribution from the European Space Agency (ESA) and it serves multiple purposes such as transporting payloads in and out of the ISS, installing, removing, or replacing experiment payloads, inspecting the station's exterior using its camera, and transporting crew members from one site to another. 

Notably, it is the same ERA that was a center of controversy after the retired Roscosmos (Russian space agency) Director-General, Dmitry Rogozin ordered to stop using the robotic arm. This order was issued in the aftermath of the Ukraine-Russia war which heavily damaged Roscosmos’ relations with ESA. As a result, Europe has cut ties with Roscosmos on the ExoMars mission, which was scheduled for launch this September, along with several missions to the Moon.