The next Russian ISS crew, together with a European astronaut, will integrate the ERA manipulator

Previously, it was supposed to integrate the manipulator during spacewalks on January 27 and February 2

Moscow. January 23. INTERFAX - The work on the integration of the European ERA manipulator (European Robotic Arm) into the International Space Station (ISS) will be carried out by the next Russian crew together with a European astronaut, cosmonaut Peter Dubrov, who works on the ISS, said.

"Another crew and another astronaut will most likely work on the outer surface of the station with a manipulator," Dubrov said in an interview with the Russian Cosmos magazine.

According to him, all work with the manipulator outside the station "due to certain comments" is shifted in time to a later date by a joint decision of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos.

On January 19, the head of the extravehicular activity Department of the Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia, Alexander Poleshchuk, announced that work on integrating ERA into the ISS had been postponed due to technical problems with the manipulator.

Earlier, Roscosmos reported that spacewalks, during which it was supposed to integrate the manipulator, would be held on January 27 and February 2. Together with the Russian cosmonauts, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer was to go into outer space.

As reported, the next Russian 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 RSC Energia Flight and Space Center, 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.