Two cosmonauts break record for longest Russian spacewalk

New Delhi: Many astronauts during their time in space have achieved record-breaking feats and the second spacewalk of the year, which took place on Friday, February 2 set another one.

The eight-hour, thirteen-minute long space event performed by two cosmonauts broke the previous record for the longest Russian spacewalk which went on for a duration of eight hours, seven minutes.

On Friday, Expedition 54 Commander Alexander Misurkin and Flight Engineer Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos ventured out of the Internation Space Station (ISS) to upgrade a high gain antenna system at 10:34 am EST (9:04 pm IST). The maintenance continued till 6:47 pm EST (5:17 am Saturday IST).

During the record-breaking spacewalk, the duo installed a new electronics and telemetry box for an antenna on the Zvezda service module to enhance communications between Russian flight controllers and the Russian modules, NASA scientists wrote in a blog post.

The antenna system appears to be working normally, the blog post said.

It was the 207th spacewalk in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance, the fourth in Misurkin's career, and the second for Shkaplerov.

The record for longest spacewalk is held by NASA astronauts. The spacewalk that lasted for eight hours and 56 minutes was performed in 2001.

(With IANS inputs)