Two Roscosmos cosmonauts took a spacewalk to activate the new European Robotic Arm (ERA) less than a day after the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The next major mission event will take place next week, when four Expedition 67 astronauts complete their stay in orbiting laboratory. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev left the station in their Orlan space suits at 10:58 a.m. EDT on Thursday, April 28, starting the fifth spacewalk of the year. Colleague cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov assisted space walkers from inside the Russian section of the ISS as they freed the ERA from launch restrictions at the Nauka reusable laboratory unit and watched the first movement of the new robotic arm. The SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule appears after being attached to the International Space Station while the station was orbiting 261 static miles above the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA The previous day, the SpaceX Dragon Freedom crew ship, carrying four Crew-4 astronauts, docked at Harmony Harbor, which looks into space at 7:37 p.m. EDT on April 27th. Less than two hours later, NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti entered the ISS, embarking on a four-and-a-half-month research mission to the space station. The 11-member crew will live and work together until next week, when the SpaceX Crew-3 mission ends. Station commander Tom Marshburn, along with Flight Engineers Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, all NASA astronauts and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, pack up to finish their orbital lab. The four astronauts representing the Commercial Crew program complete a six-month scientific mission to the space laboratory. NASA and SpaceX mission managers plan the quartet to board the Dragon Endurance crew and disengage from Harmony’s front port for a collapse off the coast of Florida next week.
