ISS crew to perform Eva August 3 and September 3

Experts from Russian and US mission-control centers have agreed on the next EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) deadlines involving Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and US astronaut Michael Fincke.

The first space walk is to take place August 3, with the crew performing their next EVA September 3, Victor Blagov, deputy chief of the Russian mission-control center, told RIA Novosti July 21.

In his words, the crew will wear Russian-made Orlan-M space suits, while working on the International Space Station's external surface. These space suits have already been tested during an unscheduled space walk in the early hours of June 26; at that time, the ISS crew repaired a US-made gyroscope. Michael Fincke liked working inside the Russian space suit; he praised our Orlan-M space suit, while chatting with his superiors, Blagov added.

Both men would mostly be expected to install laser equipment on the ISS docking unit August 3 for the new ESA ATV Jules Verne space truck; its ground tests have already got under way.

Previously, Padalka and Fincke loaded trash into Russia's Progress space truck, which is still connected to the ISS. That spacecraft will undock July 30, burning up over a preset Pacific Ocean sector a few hours later.

The new Progress-M-50 space truck is to lift off August 11 from the Baikonur space center, docking with the ISS August 14. That truck will, as usual, fly in crew parcels, food, fuel, water, spare parts, as well as part of the tenth main expedition's consignments. That expedition is to blast off October 9, comprising the current crew's back-up men Salizhan Sharipov of Russia and US astronaut Leroy Chiao. They will either be accompanied by a space tourist, whose candidacy is now being selected by the Federal Space Agency, or the first Space Force cosmonaut Yury Shargin. One of these two men will spend seven days in orbit.