Expedition 67 commander Oleg Artemyev and flight engineer Denis Matveev, both of Roscosmos, were instructed by Russian flight controllers to end the spacewalk yesterday after the issue occurred.
Despite the early ending, cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev still managed to complete the installation of two cameras on the European robotic arm during the spacewalk. Soon after, his spacesuit started showing abnormal battery readings.
The arm is affixed to Russia's Nauka research module and will be used to remotely move equipment outside of the station.
It was roughly two hours into a six-hour spacewalk when voltage levels in his spacesuit's battery began to unexpectedly drop.
Mission Control-Moscow instructed him to return to the Poisk airlock to connect to the space station’s power supply.
Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov later placed the European robotic arm in a safe configuration from inside the station.
Nasa said that the spacewalker was never “in any danger during...