When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (at center top) and Sergei Mikaev conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. | Credit: NASATwo Russian cosmonauts worked to install and retrieve science experiments while on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday (May 27).Expedition 74 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev spent 6 hours and 5 minutes outside the space station, conducting an extravehicular activity (EVA) that ran from 10:18 a.m. to 4:23 p.m. EDT (1418 to 2023 GMT). The two spacewalkers installed a solar radiation experiment on the exterior of the Zvezda service module and removed science hardware from the Poisk and Nauka modules on the station’s Russian segment.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Solntse-Teragerts telescope that the duo mounted outside Zvezda was designed to observe and collect data about strong solar flares emanating from the sun. The instrument will help scientists improve their prediction models and better understand solar flare activity at different frequencies. The device is expected to operate through 2028.Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (at left) holds up a card with a logo celebrating the 80th anniversary of the design bureau RSC Energia as he and Sergei Mikaev pose for a photograph during a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. | Credit: NASAKud-Sverchkov and Mikaev then rode at one end of the European Robotic Arm (ERA), a 40-foot-long (11.3-meter) remote manipulator, to retrieve a cassette holding semiconducting material produced by an experiment mounted outside the Nauka mini-research module. The Ekran-M molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) experiment uses gallium arsenide to form ultra-pure, ultra-thin films that can only be borne under the microgravity environment of space.The cosmonauts ran into some difficulty retrieving the cassette, including losing a pair of pliers and commands sent from the ground failing t …
