Two Russian astronauts are about to walk in space

Today (August 20) at 21:40 (Vietnam time), two Russian astronauts on the ISS station will make the first spacewalk of the Expedition mission 32, to upgrade and install more. devices for the space station.

Under the plan, astronaut Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko will work in space for 6.5 hours to maintain and repair parts outside the International Space Station (ISS).

The two Russian astronauts were the first to perform the space walking mission of the Expedition crew 32. They will wear Russian-made Orlan astronaut suits, step out of the Pirs module to begin working. service at 14:40 (GMT) ie 21:40 (Vietnamese time).

In the first mission of Expedition 32 crew, Padalka and Malenchenko will focus on installing new meteorite shields for many parts of Russia's Zvezda service module and moving the Strela manual crane. 2 from the module connecting the Pirs of the ISS station to the Zarya control module outside.

Moving the crane to create space for a new Russian lab module will be launched on the ISS in 2013.

When the task of repairing and installing new equipment for the ISS station is completed, two Russian astronauts will also carry out two scientific studies outside the space station to assess how the reflective materials are corresponding to the vacuum environment.

If the 6.5-hour walk in space is still redundant, astronauts may be able to carry out the task of "launching" a small spherical satellite from outside the orbit. The satellite is part of Russia's special scientific experiment and was designed to operate in orbit three months before falling to Earth's atmosphere and burned completely.

Padalka and Malenchenko are two experienced astronauts performing the task of walking in space. In it, astronaut Padalka made 8 space walks with 6 times from the ISS station and 2 times from Russia's Mir space station. Astronaut Malenchenko once made 4 space walks with 2 times from the ISS station and 2 times from Mir station.

Currently, the ISS station is home to 6 astronauts including 3 Russian astronauts: Padalka, Malenchenko and Sergei Revin, 2 NASA astronauts: Joe Acaba and Sunita Williams and a Japanese astronaut: Akihiko Hoshide.

Two astronauts Williams and Hoshide will make an outer space walk of 6.5 hours on August 30 at NASA's request.