MISSION CONTROL (Moscow Region), July 11 (RIA Novosti) -- Two Russian astronauts aboard the International Space Station have made a daring spacewalk to repair their Soyuz descent capsule, Russian mission control said on Friday.
Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko managed to remove an explosive bolt from the capsule, one of 10 used to separate two parts of the module during reentry, fixing a problem that had led to rough landings for two previous crews.
Russian engineers believed that the bolt had failed to fire during previous descents.
Volkov and Kononenko put the bolt, which could have blown their hands off, into an onboard blast-proof container. "It is in!" one of the Russians called out.
The astronauts' landing scheduled for this October should now go smoothly.
