Moscow. January 19. INTERFAX - Work on the integration of the European ERA manipulator into the ISS has been postponed due to technical problems with the manipulator, said Alexander Poleshchuk, head of the extravehicular Activity Department of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation.
"More ERA initialization flights were supposed for this crew, but some problems with ERA postponed these works to the next crew," Poleshchuk said.
Earlier, Roscosmos reported that spacewalks, during which it was supposed to integrate the manipulator, would be held on January 27 and February 2.
As reported, the next crew will arrive at the ISS on March 18. It will include cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov. On January 14, Artemyev reported that the crew would make six or seven spacewalks.
Earlier, the head of the flight and space center of the rocket and space Corporation Energia, Alexander Kaleri, said that three spacewalks would be required to install the ERA manipulator. Also, according to him, during the next three exits, astronauts with the help of ERA will install additional equipment.
Kaleri noted that ESA astronauts will help set up the ERA manipulator, which is located on the Nauka module.
The ERA autonomous relocatable manipulator manufactured by the German company Fokker Space is part of the standard electromechanical maintenance tools of the Nauka module.