Russian spacewalk complete after camera snag

Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Skripochka have completed a spacewalk that went smoothly until trouble with a final task to relocate a TV camera.

Working outside the International Space Station's Russian segment, the pair installed a work station and tethers to help future spacewalkers, took samples from an oxygen generation system's vents, retrieved a robotic experiment and installed a materials experiment.

Late in the more than six-hour excursion, Yurchikhin struggled to relocate a TV camera on the Rassvet docking module -- delivered by shuttle Atlantis in May -- because insulation was in the way.

"Nobody's going to die because of this," a Russian mission controller said, encouraging Yurchikhin to call it a day and return to the Pirs airlock. "Job security. Now we have a clear understanding of what is going to be done next."

The cosmonauts headed back to the airlock with the camera. The spacewalk ended at 4:22 p.m. EST with an official elapsed time of six hours and 27 minutes -- about 30 minutes longer than planned.

It was Skripochka's first spacewalk and the fifth for Yurchikhin, whose career spacewalking time now totals 31 hours and 54 minutes.

It was the 133rd Russian spacewalk, and the 151st overall supporting station assembly and maintenance, which total 950 hours, 51 minutes.

During the spacewalk, fellow station residents and Expedition 25 crew members Scott Kelly and Alexander Kaleri were staged inside a Soyuz lifeboat in case of an emergency, because their access would have been blocked. Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker, whose Soyuz access was unobstructed, worked in the U.S. segment on maintenance, research and exercise.

Two spacewalks are planned during shuttle Discovery's final flight, which NASA hopes to launch by early December. Another Russian outing is planned in mid-January.

IMAGE: Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin today works to install a TV camera outside the Mini Research Module 1, nicknamed Rassvet, or "dawn." Skripochka returned to the airlock, and found Yurchikhin inside. Credit: NASA TV