CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — In a daring spacewalk, two space station cosmonauts cut into the insulation of their descent capsule Thursday and removed an explosive bolt that could have blown off their hands with firecracker force.
Station commander Sergei Volkov and flight engineer Oleg Kononenko managed to safely disconnect the bolt from the Soyuz capsule that will be their ride home in October. They immediately slid it into a blast-proof container.
Each pyrotechnic bolt has the force of a M-80 firecracker, NASA officials said
Before the spacewalk, flight controllers in Moscow assured Volkov and Kononenko that the bolt would not explode and that the unprecedented job would help ensure their safe return to Earth in the Soyuz. Nonetheless, Mission Control repeatedly urged them to be careful as they worked near the explosives.
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"Take your time," Mission Control warned. "Be careful; be careful, please."
NASA said that its own engineers were convinced that it would be all right to put the explosive bolt in the blast-proof canister and take it into the International Space Station for eventual return to Earth.
The past two Soyuz descents have been steep, off-course and bone-jarring, and the Russian Space Agency wants to avoid the problem when Volkov and Kononenko fly home. The capsule currently docked at the space station ferried up the two Russians in April.
Kononenko used a serrated knife to cut away the thick insulation surrounding the bolt. It was a messy job, with shreds of the multilayer insulation floating every which way.
Next, the cosmonauts installed devices to eliminate static electricity, struggling at times in the cramped area. Finally, four hours into the spacewalk, Volkov pulled out a socket wrench and removed the 3-inch pyrotechnic bolt, one of 10 used to separate two parts of the module during re-entry.
The lone American on board, Gregory Chamitoff, was inside the Soyuz for the entire six-hour spacewalk in case an emer-gency required the two Russians to join him in the capsule.
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