New cameras were not successfully installed on the station

Dec 28, 2013 08:04 GMT  ·  By
Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy spent a little over 8 hours outside the ISS on Friday, December 28, 2013
   Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy spent a little over 8 hours outside the ISS on Friday, December 28, 2013

On Friday, December 27, two cosmonauts from the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) carried out an extravehicular activity (EVA) outside the International Space Station (ISS), with the goal of installing a pair of new high-definition cameras on the outer hull of the space lab. 

Though the effort was a success and the new ISS eyes were installed without issue, the two cosmonauts eventually had to retrieve the cameras and return them inside the spacecraft. Mission controllers said that a data glitch (which remained unspecified) was responsible for the delay.

This spacewalk was the longest ever conducted by RosCosmos, with cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy spending a little over 8 hours outside the ISS. By comparison, a spacewalk conducted by two NASA astronauts on Christmas Eve lasted around 7 hours and 20 minutes.

During the new EVA, the cosmonauts had to install a pair of HD cameras for UrtheCast, a Canadian company that signed an agreement with RosCosmos for installing the Earth-facing and observing cameras outside the station, Space reports.

Russian Mission Control told Kotov and Ryazanskiy that the feed from the cameras was problematic, and that the imaging system was not relaying any data. “It appears that we have seen an unsuccessful attempt at bringing those two cameras to life,” NASA spokesman Rob Navias said.

“The exact cause of the problem is not known at this time,” he said in his commentary of the EVA.

The UrtheCast cameras were delivered aboard the International Space Station on the Russian-built Progress 53 cargo spacecraft, which made its way to the lab in late November. The images they will collect will be provided by the company to its clients via the Internet.

“UrtheCast's two cameras will stream unprecedented footage of our evolving Earth to anyone with an Internet connection. In near real-time, you will be able to visit your favorite locales and learn about current events as they unfold,” representatives from the company say in a statement.

Friday's sortie marks the fifth time Kotov has been on a spacewalk. The cosmonaut is currently the commander of Expedition 38 aboard the ISS. His colleague, Ryazanskiy, has just performed his second EVA. The spacewalk was the third the current station crew performed in less than a week.