Russian Cosmonauts to Embark on Spacewalk in Mid-August

Russian cosmonauts are slated to embark on their next spacewalk in mid-August, TASS reporter Oleg Artemyev announced on Friday.

He indicated that the extravehicular activity is tentatively scheduled for August 17. During their spacewalk, Artemyev and his teammate Denis Matveyev may carry out work on creating an extra route from the Zarya module to the Poisk module in the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS).

This task was initially planned for the extravehicular work by Artemyev and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti but was dropped in the process.

Two weeks ago, NASA announced that the United States is set to resume ISS flights with Moscow despite the Russian war in Ukraine.

“To ensure continued safe operations of the International Space Station, protest the lives of astronauts and ensure continuous US presence in space, NASA will resume integrated crews on US crew spacecraft and the Russian Soyuz,” America’s space agency said.

Dana Weigel, ISS Deputy Program Manager, has previously stated that an agreement between Russia and the US on cross flights to the ISS is in the final stage of review.

“We’re hopeful that we’re pretty close to finalizing the agreement. It is in the final stages of review at both NASA and Roscosmos,” she told a briefing on the upcoming SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon 2 flight to the ISS.