Cosmonauts toss out antenna box, install a new one during longest Russian spacewalk

News Brief: A pair of Russian cosmonauts today conducted their nation’s longest-ever spacewalk to replace an electronics box for a high-gain antenna on the International Space Station’s Russian-made Zvezda module. The old box was thrown outward on a trajectory that’s not expected to imperil the station, but it took some doing to get the new box installed and working properly. The antenna encountered a snag that spacewalkers Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shklaperov had to clear, and when ground controllers issued the commands to move it into place, it rotated beyond its intended position. Russian controllers are looking into whether a fix is required. Today’s eight-hour, 13-minute outing is the longest Russian spacewalk — but the U.S. record of eight hours and 56 minutes, set in 2001, still stands.