Cosmonauts conducting spacewalk outside ISS to prepare for Russian research module

Zac Hall | Nov 18 2020 - 6:44 am PT

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov are conducting spacewalks outside the International Space Station today. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins is tasked with assisting the cosmonaut duo with suiting up and monitoring their progress during what is expected to last up to six hours.

What to know

First spacewalk for cosmonauts Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov
232nd spacewalk to support ISS assembly, maintenance, and upgrades
Eighth spacewalk during 2020

NASA describes the goals of today’s spacewalk outside the space station:

During the spacewalk, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will first conduct leak inspections outside the hatch, as this will be the first spacewalk using the Poisk module for its purpose as an airlock. Next, they will relocate an antenna from another module, the Pirs docking compartment, to Poisk, the first in a series of tasks over the course of several spacewalks that will prepare Pirs for decommissioning, undocking, and disposal. The Earth-facing Pirs will be replaced by the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module, named “Nauka,” Russian for “science,” which is being prepared for launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The cosmonauts also will replace a fluid flow regulator on the Zarya module, retrieve hardware that measures space debris impacts, and reposition an instrument used to measure the residue from thruster firings.

How to watch

The spacewalk starts around 9:30 a.m. EST and is scheduled to run through 3:30 p.m. EST at the latest. Watch below:

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