Russian cosmonauts remove a towel that spent 10 years on surface of ISS

A towel, taken from the surface of the ISS is being examined for microorganisms that could have inhabited the cloth, lead researcher for the Institute of Medical and Biological Issues of the Russian Academy of Sciences Svetlana Poddubko told RIA Novosti.

It was earlier reported that Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Alexei Ovchinin had removed a towel from the surface of the International Space Station during their scheduled spacewalk. The towel remained outside the station for 10 years.

The towel was originally meant to clean astronauts' spacesuits during their work in outer space. It was left by a Russian cosmonaut about a decade ago. Mr Kononenko and Mr Ovchinin removed the towel from the station's surface and placed it in a special container.

It will be sent back to Earth and delivered to a group of experts for further examination.

On Wednesday, Oleg Kononenko and Alexei Ovchinin staged a six-hour maintenance spacewalk. They completed their tasks as part of a test research project, installed handrails between the Poisk and Zarya modules on the Russian segment of the ISS and also performed some other maintenance work.

Source: RIA Novosti

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Cosmonauts complete spacewalk at International Space Station
Washington (UPI) May 29, 2019
A pair of Russian cosmonauts completed a spacewalk on Wednesday to retrieve science experiments and carry out maintenance on the International Space Station. Expedition 59 commander Oleg Kononenko and fellow cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin stepped out of the space station at 11:42 a.m. and returned about 6 hours later to close the hatch at 5:43 p.m. after completing the spacewalk, which was being live streamed on NASA's YouTube channel. The pair began the exhibition by sending out a special gr ... read more