Expedition 52 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin
holds one of the five satellites set to be deployed during the Russian
spacewalk on Aug. 17, 2017.
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Two Russian cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station Thursday,
Aug. 17, to deploy several nanosatellites, collect research samples and perform
structural maintenance. Coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 10 a.m. EDT on
NASA Television and the agency’s website.
Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer
Sergey Ryazanskiy, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will don their
spacesuits and exit the station's Pirs airlock at approximately 10:45 a.m.
Ryazanskiy will begin the schedule of extravehicular activities with
the manual deployment of five nanosatellites from a ladder outside the airlock.
The satellites, each of which has a mass of about 11 pounds, have a variety of
purposes.
One of the satellites, with casings made using 3-D printing
technology, will test the effect of the low-Earth-orbit environment on the
composition of 3-D printed materials. Another satellite contains recorded
greetings to the people of Earth in 11 languages. A third satellite
commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Sputnik
1 launch and the 160th anniversary of the birth of Russian scientist Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky.
The spacewalkers also will collect residue samples from various
locations outside the Russian segment of the station and install handrails and
struts to facilitate future excursions.
Yurchikhin will be designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1)
for this spacewalk, the ninth of his career. Ryazanskiy, embarking on his
fourth spacewalk, will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2). Both will wear
Russian Orlan spacesuits bearing blue stripes. The spacewalk will be the 202nd
in support of space station assembly and maintenance and the seventh spacewalk
this year.
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