On Thursday, July 11, 2008, two astronauts were able to remove and explosive bolt from their capsule. Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, two Russian spacewalkers, were able to accurately disconnect the bolt attached to the Soyuz capsule, which is going to bring the astronauts home this fall. Afterwards they instantly slid inside the blast-proof container.

Prior to the spacewalk, the two Russian astronauts were told by the flight controllers that the bolt is not going to explode. In addition the flight controllers mentioned that the unprecedented job would guarantee safe return of the spacewalkers to Earth in the Soyuz capsule. However, Mission Control continuously asked the astronauts to be careful while working near the explosives.

According to NASA, its engineers were sure of the fact that the Russian astronauts would be in no danger and they would manage to put the explosive bolt inside the blast-proof canister so then to take it to the international space station and be able to come back home to Earth.

Previous two Soyuz drops were vertical, off-course and harsh, which is why the Russian Space Agency hopes to dodge the issue when the two astronauts return to Earth in October. It is worth mentioning that the capsule that is now docked at the international space station was the one to ferry up Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko in April.

In order to cut away the thick shiny insulation that encircled the bolt, an instrument that is usually ignored by astronauts due to the possibility of stabbing pressurized suits and/or gloves. The job proved to be quite messy, shreds of the multilayer insulation gliding in different directions.

Afterwards the spacewalkers installed devices that will help get rid of static electricity. In the end, being four hours outside the space station, astronaut Volkov was able to pull out a socket wrench and eliminate the three-inch pyrotechnic bolt, which is one of the ten bolts used to part two components of the module during re-entry.

After the two sections did not part properly in April and October of 2007, during the descent of Soyuz, the result was the ballistic entries that made the astronauts face much gravity forces than usually.

Engineers from the Russian agency consider that some explosive bolts did not explode. According to the officials the successful disabling of the bolts meant that there should be no mechanical problems during the October descent.

It is worth mentioning that every pyrotechnic bolt has an explosive force of a large M-80 firecracker.

The blast-proof container, where the bolt was placed, is made of stainless steel. The container is going to be unsealed only after it returns to Earth for analysis.

"We dream of a lot of wild things to do, and after much analysis, sometimes we do them and sometimes we don't. We have quite a bit of confidence in this particular case that we're perfectly safe" said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.

NASA has a certain interest in Russian Soyuz capsules due to the fact that it sometimes helps transport American astronauts to the space station and back. In addition, the capsules serve as lifeboats.