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Russian cosmonauts begin first spacewalk this year

The extravehicular activity is expected to last about 6 hours and 40 minutes

International Space Station NASA

International Space Station

MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov opened an exit hatch of the Poisk module aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for their first spacewalk this year to integrate the Prichal nodal module into the ISS Russian segment, Roscosmos said in a live broadcast on its website on Wednesday.

The Russian crew members secured the exit hatch cover and installed a protection ring. Flight Control Center specialists gave Dubrov the go-ahead for the spacewalk who will be followed by Shkaplerov.

The extravehicular activity is expected to last about 6 hours and 40 minutes. The spacewalk will be the third for Shkaplerov in his career who will be working outside the orbital outpost in the spacesuit with red stripes and the fourth for Dubrov who will be wearing the spacesuit with blue stripes.

The main goal of the spacewalk is to integrate the Prichal nodal module that docked to the ISS in November. After its integration into the ISS Russian segment, up to five spacecraft will be able to dock to the Prichal module. The Russian Cosmos magazine earlier reported that Russian cosmonauts would make eight spacewalks in January - May 2022.

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