Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev releases a tiny nano-satellite into space. NASA TV.
On Wednesday August 15, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Oleg Artemeyev opened the hatch on the Pirs module just after midnight and stayed out for over seven hours. They completed the tasks of installing the German-made Icarus experiment outside the Pirs module, and also hand-launched four nano-satellites that had been built by Russian science students.
The Icarus experiment will track the migrations and movements of animals that have been tagged with tiny transmitters. Scientists will study how animal populations have modified their migrations and movements while encountering changes in their environments.
Artemyev, left, and Prokopyev in a practice for the upcoming spacewalk. Credit: Roscosmos.
This was Artemyev's third spacewalk, and the first EVA for Prokopyev. The next ISS spacewalk will be in September.
