TASS, June 2. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov opened the hatch of the Poisk small research module of the International Space Station and embarked on this year’s first spacewalk to prepare the station for new science module.
The effort began at 8:20 a.m. Moscow Time as scheduled and the extravehicular activity (EVA) will last six hours and 50 minutes. Expedition 65 Flight Engineers Novitsky and Dubrov will carry out their activity in Orlan-MKS spacesuits: Novitsky is wearing the gear with red stripes and Dubrov is clad in the spacesuit with blue stripes.
The previous spacewalk was conducted on November 18, 2020.
Wednesday’s spacewalk will be special, because it will combine three elements: regular maintenance works, space experiments and preparations for the docking of a new ISS module, Nauka, which is Russian for "science."
At the very start, the cosmonauts will replace the removable panel of the fluid flow regulator on the Zarya functional cargo block. This job was supposed to be done by cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov during the previous Russian spacewalk, but they failed to complete it.
Also, the cosmonauts will prepare the Pirs module for undocking from the ISS. It will be replaced by the Nauka module that will fly to the ISS later this summer.
Novitsky and Dubrov will also install equipment for several scientific experiments on the exterior surface of the Poisk module.
During the spacewalk, the cosmonauts are scheduled to have four pauses for rest, each lasting five minutes.