Spacewalking Cosmonauts Swap Out Broken Camera At Station

Two Russian cosmonauts are headed back inside the International Space Station this morning after an overnight spacewalk at the orbiting outpost.

Flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Mikhail Kornienko ventured outside the station around 12:15 a.m. and replaced a broken camera that plays a key role in docking robotic European ATV cargo carriers to the aft end of the Russian Zvezda module, a command-and-control segment that doubles as crew quarters. A supply-filled STV is due to arrive at the station in December.

Also on the cosmonaut's to-do list: Rigging up cables that electronically link the newly delivered Rassvet Mini Research Module with the rest of the Russian side of the station.

The spacewalk was the fourth for Yurchikhin and the first for Kornienko. It was the 147th performed in the assembly and maintenance of the station, construction of which began in late 1998.