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Spacewalk: Cosmonauts Continue Work On Activation Of European Robotic Arm On The International Space Station During today's spacewalk, Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev of Roscosmos will be working on the activation of the new European robotic arm -- a 37-foot-long manipulator system mounted to the recently arrived Nauka module. This is a continuation of the work started during the last spacewalk on April 18. The cosmonauts during today's spacewalk staged out of the Poisk module airlock, will monitor the first commanded movements of the robotic arm from its grapple fixtures after removing thermal blankets and launch locks. The arm’s end effectors will translate one at a time to a new base points. The crew also will install more handrails on Nauka. The spacewalk which began at 1458 UTC is expected to last about six and half hours. During the last spacewalk on April 18 the cosmonauts installed and connected a control panel for the robotic arm. They also removed protective covers from the arm and installed handrails on Nauka. The arm will be used to move spacewalkers and payloads around the Russian segment of the station. Today's spacewalk is the second in this series of spacewalks to activate the European Robotic Arm. The April 18 spacewalk was also conducted by both Artemyev and Matveev. The next spacewalk in this series will be conducted by Artemyev and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA), who will arrive at the ISS on Crew-4. This is also the fifth spacewalk at the International Space Station this year and the 250th for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades. WATCH the spacewalk by cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev. https://www.keneci.com/read-more-hotfeed-on-keneci-channel#h.j9i684zihuyv