Russian cosmonauts took a spacewalk Wednesday to fling tiny satellites into orbit and install an antenna on the International Space Station for tracking birds on Earth.
Soon after leaving the space station, Sergey Prokopyev released all four research satellites by hand.
“I’m ready for the launch,” Prokopyev told Russian flight controllers near Moscow.
The first satellite tumbled away as the space station soared 400 kilometres above Illinois. By the time the fourth one was on its way 14 minutes later, the station was almost to Spain. Two of the satellites were the size of a tissue box, while the other two were longer.
Prokopyev and Oleg Artemyev then turned their attention to a German-led, animal-tracking project known as Icarus, short for
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