BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, September 14. /TASS/. Russian cosmonauts will carry out a spacewalk in October or November and three more next year, says Oleg Kononenko, deputy head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, commander of the Roscomos cosmonaut team.
"Presumably, in October or November," Kononenko said during a pre-flight press conference, answering a question from TASS.
According to the cosmonaut, it was initially planned that he and his colleague Nikolay Chub will have two spacewalks in 2023 and two more in 2024, but the changes in the equipment delivery schedule adjusted the plans.
"There will definitely be one this year, and three more next year," Kononenko explained.
Meanwhile, NASA Astronaut Loral O’Hara noted that, under the American program, two spacewalks are planned for this fall.
The Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-24 manned spacecraft will launch at 18:44:35 Moscow time on September 15. The mission will include Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, who will also act as TASS special reporter at the ISS, Nikolay Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. O’Hara will return back to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, while Kononeko and Chub will continue their mission until September 2024 and return aboard the Soyuz MS-25.
Kononeko may become the first earthling to spend over 1,000 days in space.