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Russian cosmonauts to conduct next spacewalk outside ISS in February

This year’s first spacewalk of the Russian cosmonauts outside the ISS took place on August 10. Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyenko spent more than five hours in outer space

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov (center) Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov (center)

© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

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50 years of spacewalks

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Russian cosmonauts have been scheduled to make their next spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) in February next year, Vladimir Solovyov, in charge of Russia’s ISS segment operations, said on Friday.

"I am unable to announce you the exact dates at the moment," Solovyov told journalists. "[Sergey] Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko underwent trainings. We will tell you the exact date as the event would approach closer."

According to earlier media reports, the spacewalk of the Russian cosmonauts had been mooted either for January or February next year.

This year’s first spacewalk of the Russian cosmonauts outside the ISS took place on August 10. Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyenko spent more than five hours in outer space.

During their spacewalk the pair of Russian cosmonauts installed soft railings on the Zvezda service module, cleaned the porthole of the module, mounted fixtures of radio antennas and carried out some extra duties.

Prior to the spacewalk in last month, Padalka had a record of eight spacewalks, including the one to the depressurized module of the Mir space station, which lasted 33 hours and four minutes. Korniyenko had only one spacewalk before August, staying 6 hours and 43 minutes outside spacecraft.

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