Russian cosmonauts to spend over 6 hours during spacewalk on April 28

During their spacewalk, the cosmonauts will continue the work to prepare the European Robotic Arm (ERA) for operation

Russian cosmonauts working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will embark on their second spacewalk as part of their current space mission on April 28 and spend more than six hours and a half during work outside the orbital outpost, cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev said on Friday, Qazet.az reports.

The extravehicular activity for Artemyev and his teammate Denis Matveyev will begin at 17:25 Moscow time and last about 6 hours and 45 minutes. The program of the spacewalk will be specified and the time may be altered, Artemyev said.

During their spacewalk, the cosmonauts will continue the work to prepare the European Robotic Arm (ERA) for operation. Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov who is also working aboard the International Space Station will provide his teammates support from the orbital outpost. In particular, he will operate the ERA manipulator.

Artemyev will conduct the fifth spacewalk in his career as a cosmonaut while Matveyev will carry out extravehicular activity for the second time. Before that, the cosmonauts made a spacewalk on April 18 to start preparing the ERA robotic arm for operation. Artemyev will work in Orlan-ISS Spacesuit No. 5 with red stripes while Matveyev will conduct extravehicular activity wearing Orlan-ISS Spacesuit No. 4 with blue stripes.

On November 17, 2021, Russia’s world-renowned TASS news agency and the State Space Corporation Roscosmos signed a memorandum of cooperation, under which a TASS news office was established aboard the ISS. Presently, cosmonaut Artemyev is heading the outer space-based branch. Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin was the first TASS special reporter in space. His flight lasted 12 days.