iss057e131575

iss057e131575 (Dec. 11, 2018) --- An Expedition 57 crew member inside the cupola photographed Russian spacewalker Oleg Kononenko (suit with red stripes) attached to the Strela boom outside the International Space Station about 250 miles above Earth to inspect the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. During the spacewalk, he and fellow spacewalker Sergey Prokopyev (towards bottom right in the suit with blue stripes) examined the external hull of the Soyuz crew ship docked to the Rassvet module. The area corresponded with the location of a small hole inside the Soyuz habitation module that was found in August and caused a decrease in the space station’s pressure. The hole was fixed internally with a sealant within hours of its detection. During the spacewalk, Kononenko and Prokopyev collected samples of some of the sealant that extruded through hole to the outer hull before heading back inside the Pirs docking compartment and closing the hatch completing a seven-hour, 45-minute spacewalk.