Russia is planning to bid adieu to the International Space Station (ISS) soon, but until that day arrives, the country will have to ensure that the space laboratory is working fine. 

A pair of Russian cosmonauts exited the ISS to embark on a long spacewalk that ended with the decommissioning of the Russian Pirs module officially. The module will soon be detached from the space station and will drift towards the Earth and destroy while entering the atmosphere.

New Nauka module to replace Pirs module

Russia is responsible for the maintenance of half the ISS, while the US takes care of the rest portion. The Pirs module was used as a docking port for spacecraft; however, the Russian space agency doesn’t need it anymore, and would rather have the new Nauka module replace it.

Nauka will feature a variety of instruments that will enable the space agency to conduct more science on board, but that’s only possible after the Pirs module is disposed of completely.

The spacewalk had other objectives too, but preparing the Pirs module to detach from ISS was the prime goal, reports NASA Space Flight. Additionally, the cosmonauts detected a failed fuel flow regulator on another module and removed it, and checked other hardware for any failures.

First module to be completely decommissioned

To decommission the Pirs module, the team had to remove cables and set other hardware in place as a backup when the module detaches. To install a new module on the ISS many new connections are required on the inside as well as the outside. 

Pirs is the first module to be completely decommissioned from the ISS, and it will be the first to be discarded in space. It is slated to be discarded after July 17, though the exact date is yet to be confirmed.

The new Nauka module will be sent around the same time to cut short the switchover time. The ISS is also aging and some of its parts require changing. Russia fixed many air leaks of late, while there were other issues as well that had to be fixed regularly.