NASA To Air Russian Spacewalk At International Space Station

Two veteran Russian cosmonaut spacewalkers will venture outside the International Space Station on Friday, Feb. 2, for a planned 6.5-hour station servicing session. Live coverage of the spacewalk will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website beginning at 9:45 a.m. EST.

Expedition 54 Commander Alexander Misurkin and Flight Engineer Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos are set to float out of the space station’s Pirs docking compartment airlock in Russian Orlan spacesuits at 10:34 a.m.

Misurkin and Shkaplerov’s primary objectives during the spacewalk will be to remove and jettison an electronics box for a high-gain communications antenna on the Zvezda service module and install an upgraded electronics box to communication between Russian flight controllers and the Russian modules of the orbital outpost. The cosmonauts also will take detailed photos of the exterior of the Russian modules and retrieve experiments housed on Zvezda’s hull.

The Russian spacewalk will be the fourth in Misurkin’s career and the second for Shkaplerov, as well as the 207th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Both of their suits will be marked with blue stripes.