MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - Two Russian crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) have completed preparations for a spacewalk due on Thursday, the second in less than a week, NASA said.
“Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin completed a final timeline review of the tasks they will perform during Thursday’s spacewalk,” reads a statement posted on NASA website.
A spokesman for the Russian mission control center said the spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 15:40 Moscow time (11:40 a.m. GMT) and last until 21:35 Moscow time (5:35 p.m. GMT).
During their excursion slated to last about six hours, the two cosmonauts will replace a laser communications experiment with a new platform for a small optical camera system, move a foot restraint and inspect several sites for the origin of a wayward antenna cover observed by US astronaut Chris Cassidy on Monday.
This will be the 173rd spacewalk in support of assembly and maintenance, performed on the $100-billion orbiting laboratory built by 15 countries. It will be the eighth in Yurchikhin’s career and the third for Misurkin. Both cosmonauts will wear blue-striped Russian Orlan spacesuits outfitted with helmet cameras.
Their previous excursion outside the station, a 7-hour, 29-minute marathon on August 16 focusing on preparations for the future arrival of the “Nauka” Multipurpose Laboratory Module, was the longest spacewalk in history conducted by a pair of Russian cosmonauts.
