Russian astronauts set for spacewalk on ISS

NASA will broadcast the live coverage of a six-hour spacewalk by two Russian crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday.

Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will wear their spacesuits and exit the station's Pirs airlock at 19.44 p.m. (IST).

"The objectives are to rig new equipment on the Russian segment of the station and conduct a detailed photographic inspection of the exterior of the orbiting outpost," the US space agency said in a statement.

Padalka and Kornienko will install devices called gap spanners on the hull of the station.

These devices will facilitate the movement of crew members on future spacewalks.

They will also install fasteners on communications antennas and replace an aging antenna used for the rendezvous and docking of visiting vehicles at Russian docking ports.

The spacewalk will be the 188th in support of space station assembly and maintenance and the 10th spacewalk for Padalka, who has spent more time in space than any other human.

On August 22, 2013, ISS 36 flight engineers Alexander Misurkin and Fyodor Yurchikhin, both of the Russian Federal Space Agency, conducted a five-hour, 58-minute spacewalk to replace a laser communications experiment, install new spacewalk aids and inspect antenna covers on the station's exterior.