The multifunctional space relay system "Luch" (operator and operating organization – JSC "Gonets Satellite System", part of the State Corporation "Roscosmos") has successfully completed the tasks of targeted application in the course of providing communication to the Mission Control Center and cosmonauts of the Russian segment of the ISS during a spacewalk.
From 20:49 Moscow Time on October 25 to 04:30 Moscow time on October 26, participants of the 70th long-term expedition to the ISS - cosmonauts of Roscosmos Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub made a spacewalk under the Russian program (VKD-61). It was the 71st Russian exit within the framework of the ISS project and the sixth in 2023. For Oleg Kononenko, it became the sixth exit in his space career, for Nikolai Chub - the first.
During the spacewalk, the duration of which was 7 hours, 41 minutes, 30 seconds, the Luch MSRS provided a broadband communication channel between Russian cosmonauts in outer space and the Mission Control Center on Earth. A total of 14 sessions of voice and video communication of the Luch system were carried out during 61 extravehicular activities. The provision of a high-quality communication channel allows the specialists of the Mission Control Center on the Ground to observe and control the actions of astronauts in outer space online and promptly respond and anticipate any emergency situations overboard. All 3 spacecraft of the system were involved in the organization of the communication channel: "Luch-5A", "Luch-5B", "Luch-5B", as well as equipment installed on the ISS RS, and means of a ground-based relay support complex.
Currently, the Luch system continues to perform the complex task of providing the crew of the 70th expedition of the ISS RS with a broadband information transmission channel with the possibility of voice and video communication, as well as data transmission in accordance with the established work program.
Photo: Broadcast of the spacewalk (Roscosmos State Corporation)
