Posted: Mon, Oct 8, 2001, 7:28 PM ET (2328 GMT)
Two Russian cosmonauts successfully completed a five-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station Monday. Cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin opened the hatch on the Pirs docking module at 10:23 am EDT (1423 GMT) and spent four hours and 58 minutes outside the station performing a variety of tasks. A key task completed during the EVA was the attachment of data and telemetry cables between the Zvezda service module and Pirs, which docked with the station last month. The cosmonauts also installed handrails, a cargo crane, a docking target, and an automated navigational antenna, but ran out of time before completing their final task of the EVA, a test of the rigidity of the Strela cargo crane. The EVA was the 100th in the history of the Russian and former Soviet space programs, and the first of three planned for the next month. Dezhurov and Turin will perform a second EVA October 15 to mount experiments to the exterior of Zvezda, and Dezhurov and Expedition Three commander Frank Culbertson will conduct another EVA November 5 to complete the outfitting of Pirs.
