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Russians from ISS crew to make spacewalk Thursday

The mission is expected to take 5 hours 55 minutes

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, August 22 (Itar-Tass) - Russians of the International Space Station (ISS) crew - flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin - on Thursday will make this year’s fourth spacewalk under the program of the Russian segment of the orbital station.

“Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin are to open hatches of the Pirs docking module and start extravehicular activity at 15:40 MSK. The planned duration of their work in outer space is 5 hours and 55 minutes,” the Mission Control Centre (MCC) outside Moscow told Itar-Tass.

On the ISS exterior the Russians will dismantle scientific equipment of a laser communications (SLS) space experiment demonstrating Russia’s information reception and transmission technology through a space laser line, will dismantle foot restraint “Anchor” from the Zvezda service module and install a portable workstation on it, will take samples from the surface of the Poisk docking module and perform other tasks.

The two cosmonauts will work outside the station in the Orlan-MK computerised spacesuits with LCDs on the chest, which “prompt” them what systems and in what sequence must be checked before leaving the station, and what to do in case of a contingency.

It will be the third spacewalk in the career of flight engineer Misurkin during one ISS flight. Yurchikhin, in contrast to his colleague, has vast extravehicular activity experience: he has already made seven spacewalks, and on Thursday will perform the eighth EVA.

The rest of the crewmembers of ISS Expedition 36/37 - Russian Pavel Vinogradov, NASA astronauts Karen Nyberg and Christopher Cassidy and the European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano - will back up their colleagues from the station.

The EVA is to be completed at 21:35 MSK.

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