Both of the Russian cosmonauts currently aboard the International Space Station, Sergei Volkov and Yuri Malenchenko, are scheduled to begin a spacewalk Wednesday morning at approximately 13:10 GMT.
This will be the second spacewalk this year, following a recent spacewalk mission on January 15th involving ESA astronaut Tim Peake and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, which was unfortunately put to an end earlier than expected due to water being discovered in Kopra’s helmet, which is indicative of a leak.
Fortunately, the cosmonauts have their own space suits, and will hopefully not experience similar problems as they perform their work outside of the International Space Station where every effort is critical.
During the spacewalk mission, the two cosmonauts will be responsible for installing new parts on the International Space Station, and they’ll also check up on and retrieve results from various experiments going on on the outside of the space station, such as the ESA’s EXPOSE-R experiment.
"Malenchenko and Volkov also will install the Vinoslivost experiment, which will test the effects of the space environment on various structural material samples, and test a device called the Restavratsiya experiment, which could be used to glue special coatings to external surfaces of the station’s Russian segment," NASA said in a public statement explaining the spacewalk.
Other new experimentation equipment will also be installed on the International Space Station’s exterior to further test how things react to being in space for long periods of time, as this kind of information is very helpful to developing new technologies to make life easier for astronauts, and some day, perhaps even other-worldly travelers.
The spacewalk is estimated to last approximately 5.5 hours, although some spacewalks have been known to be much shorter than the estimated amount of time astronauts are given. Essentially, it all comes down to how long it takes to get everything done. Obviously, the shorter the spacewalk is, the better, as it means getting the cosmonauts back to safety as quickly as possible.
NASA will be live-streaming the spacewalk on NASA TV, so tune in if you're interested in seeing how this spacewalk goes.
Source: NASA