Members of the Sixth Permanent Expedition to ISS to Perform Their First Space Walk

On Wednesday, January 15th, at 15:30, Moscow time, members of the sixth permanent expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) will perform their first space walk, a spokesman for the Mission Control told RIA Novosti on January 14th.

Two US astronauts - commander of the expedition Kenneth Bowersox and flight engineer Donald Pettit - will perform space walk. They will work for six hours according to the US programme connected with additional equipment of the trusses on the station's surface where the plots with solar batteries will be placed afterwards.

The astronauts will turn the radiators of the thermoregulation system and place the lighting devices along the trusses, the Mission Control reported. Since the astronauts will work half of the time in outer space "in shadow", that is in conditions of night, the lighting devices will later help to work without intervals.

Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin will monitor the work of the US astronauts from the station's module, securing their actions in outer space, the Mission Control specified.

The sixth permanent expedition began working in the ISS on December 3rd, 2002, and will continue working till March, 2003.