Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka are preparing to conduct this year's first spacewalk scheduled for Friday, Russia's Mission Control said.
"The spacewalk will have several objectives: the installation of Russian high-speed data transmission equipment on the Zvezda service module, dismounting of the impulse plasma injector and installation of a camera on the Rassvet module," a Mission Control spokesman said.
The spacewalk is expected to last for around six hours.
The cosmonauts have asked nutritionists to supplement food supplies with pickles, onions, garlic, apples, oranges and lemons for their next Progress M-09M launch scheduled on January 28.
Having more variety on the menu for astronauts is believed to cheer them up and improve their working skills, the Moskovsky Komsomolets paper said citing nutritionists.
Earlier this month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared 2011 as Russia's Space Year. In April, Russia will mark the 50th anniversary of its first manned space flight with Yury Gagarin.
The Russian government will spend 115 billion rubles ($3.8 bln) on national space programs in 2011, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.
Russia plans to launch approximately 50 near-Earth satellites this year and adopt a federal program for the development of the Glonass satellite navigation system until 2020.
MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti)
