Russian astronauts conducted a spacewalk from the ISS and disposed of trash outside the station (photo).

Russian astronauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner completed their final spacewalk from the ISS in 2024 on December 19. During this time, Ovchinin took a brief trip on the robotic manipulator ERA to dispose of unnecessary equipment collected while working outside the International Space Station (ISS), reports Space.

Alexey Ovchinin secured his feet at the end of the ERA robotic manipulator, which is located outside the ISS, at the conclusion of the spacewalk that lasted 7 hours and 17 minutes. Another Russian astronaut, Alexander Gorbunov, operated the 11.3-meter-long manipulator from inside the station. At the designated point, Ovchinin discarded the unnecessary equipment collected outside the space station, which is now classified as space debris and is expected to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Ovchinin and Wagner exited the ISS through the airlock of the Russian module "Poisk." Following this, they proceeded to the "Zvezda" module, where they installed a new X-ray spectrometer. This device will allow scientists to observe space in the X-ray range of light wavelengths every 72 days for three years. The astronauts also installed new electrical connector panels on the "Zvezda" module, while Ovchinin disposed of the old panels in space along with other unnecessary equipment.

The astronauts also collected devices that were used for experiments on the resilience and testing of materials and biological samples in the conditions of outer space. These experiments will be returned to Earth for further study. At the very end of their mission outside the ISS, the astronauts discarded towels used to wipe their spacesuit gloves before re-entering the "Poisk" module's airlock.

Due to the limited time available for the spacewalk, the astronauts opted not to move the external control panel of the ERA robotic manipulator. However, this is not critically important for the operation of the space station.

This spacewalk marked the 272nd conducted by astronauts from the ISS since 1998 for maintenance and upgrades of the station. Additionally, it was the first spacewalk during the 72nd expedition to the ISS and the third conducted by astronauts on the space station this year.

In 2024, there were also five other spacewalks. Four were conducted by Chinese astronauts outside the "Tiangong" space station, and one was performed for the first time by space tourists from the Polars Dawn mission outside SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.