Mission successful! Seventh spacewalk of 2017 comes to an end after seven hours, 34 minutes

The spacewalkers left the station's Pirs airlock at approximately 10:45 a.m EDT to deploy several nanosatellites, collect research samples, perform structural maintenance and to install handrails and struts to facilitate future excursions.

Image courtesy: NASA

New Delhi: Led by Expedition 52 cosmonauts Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, the seven hour and 34 minute spacewalk on August 17 came to an end, after they re-entered the airlock at 6:10 pm EDT.

The two spacewalkers exited the Pirs Docking Compartment Station at 10:36 am EDT and successfully deployed five nanosatellites manually from a ladder outside the airlock, collected research samples, performed structural maintenance and installed handrails and struts to facilitate future excursions.

According to NASA, one of the satellites, with casings made using 3-D printing technology, will test the effect of the low-Earth-orbit environment on the composition of 3-D printed materials.

Another satellite contains recorded greetings to the people of Earth in 11 languages.

A third satellite commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch and the 160th anniversary of the birth of Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

They also collected residue samples from various locations outside the Russian segment of the station.

This was Fyodor Yurchikhin's ninth spacewalk and Sergey Ryazanskiy's fourth.