MOSCOW, August 20 (Itar-Tass) — Two cosmonauts from among the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) are to take this year's second spacewalk on Monday under the Russsian programme. The first spacewalk was taken in February by ISS-30 mission flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Oleg Kononenko.
An official at the Mission Control Center (MCC) told Itar-Tass, "ISS-32 mission commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko are to open the hatches of the docking module Pier and start extravehicular activities (EVA) at 18:40, Moscow time".
Both spacewalkers will engage in EVA wearing computerized spacesuits Orlan (eagle)-MK with a liquid-crystal display which prompts the wearers which systems and in what order must be monitored before a spacewalk and what must be done in the event of an unconventional situation. The new modification pf the spacesuit was first tested in action in 2009 precisely by Padalka. EVA is a well-practised operation to both experienced cosmonauts: Padalka spent an aggregate of over 27 hours in eight spacewalks while Malenchenko took four spacewalks, all lasting 24 hours.
The EVA programme is a hard-driving one. The main tasks are to transfer a cargo boom from the docking module Pier to the function-and-cargo module Zarya (dawn), launch a research microsatellite Sphere and install additional anti-meteoroid panels on the service module Zvezda (star).
Energy left and time permitting, the cosmonauts may dismantle SKK-2 and Biorisk-MSN containers from the Pier module and install struts of a remote workstation to render it steadier.
The other ISS-32 mission crewmembers -- Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin, NASA astronauts Joseph Acaba, Sunita Williams, and astronaut of the Japanese space agency JAXA Akihiko Hoshide -- will ensure the safety of their colleagues from board the Station.
The planned duration of the EVA is to be six hours and 23 minutes, the MCC official specified.