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Iss Crew Concludes Spacewalk

Posted on: Saturday, 4 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

MOSCOW. Sep 4 (Interfax) - The crew of the International Space station, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke finished their spacewalk and returned to the station, closing the docking module, at 2:04 a.m., Moscow time, on Saturday.

The astronauts completed all of the spacewalk's objectives, a source in the Mission control's press service told Interfax.

"The astronauts have successfully returned aboard, they are feeling fine, the spacewalk lasted for 5 hours and 20 minutes," the source said.

The crew replaced the liquid expenditure regulator on the station's FGB module and installed guiding circuits on the module. Barriers have been installed on the station's Pirs docking module.

Work to provide for the first European cargo ship, the ATV, which will take off in 2005, was one of the most important parts of the astronauts' work, the source said. The astronauts installed antennae on the station's surface that will be used to dock the ATV.

The station remained uninhabited during the spacewalk, as both crewmembers took part in the outer space works.

The spacewalk was performed in Russian Orlan-M spacesuits.

This was the third spacewalk performed by the ninth ISS crew. The two precious spacewalks took place in July and August.

The astronauts were told about the situation in Beslan during a communication session with Earth, but there was no discussion on the subject, the source said.

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