Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev exited the house station at 10:58 a.m. ET to start their spacewalk, which is predicted to final for about six and a half hours.
Artemyev will probably be identifiable within the Russian Orlan spacesuit bearing purple stripes, whereas Matveev is carrying a spacesuit with blue stripes. That is the second spacewalk for Matveev and the fifth for veteran spacewalker Artemyev.
Artemyev and Matveev are conducting work on the robotic arm exterior the Russian Nauka multipurpose module. Their work started throughout a spacewalk on April 18.
On this preliminary spacewalk, the duo put in and related a management panel for the 37-foot-long (11.3-meter-long) robotic arm.
Matveev and Artemyev may even check the mechanism’s first motions. The cosmonauts will flex the robotic arm’s joints, launch restraints and check its grappling skill.
This robotic arm will probably be used to help spacewalkers and transport any gadgets that must be moved exterior the house station’s Russian section sooner or later.
It’s the fifth spacewalk exterior the house station this yr and the 250th total in assist of assembling, sustaining and upgrading the orbiting laboratory.
These paired excursions are the primary of upcoming spacewalks that can deal with getting ready Nauka and the robotic arm for future use.
