MOSCOW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner completed a spacewalk lasting over seven hours to install an advanced X-ray spectrometer on the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said on Friday.
During the spacewalk, the cosmonauts connected the SPIN-X1-MVN spectrometer to the Zvezda service module of the ISS, which will enable scientists to conduct near-complete periodic surveys of 84 percent of the sky in the X-ray spectrum every 72 days over three years, with 15 surveys planned in total, according to a Roscosmos press release.
In the final stage of the spacewalk, Ovchinin positioned himself on the European Robotic Arm, which was under the control of Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. He jettisoned a bundle containing old securing plates, protective covers from the spectrometer, and retired scientific instruments. The bundle will eventually burn up upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
This marked the 73rd Russian spacewalk as part of the ISS program and the second conducted this year, said Roscosmos. ■
