Cosmonauts perform spacewalk outside ISS

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION

A pair of spacewalking cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station on Thursday (February 16) to relocate a crucial crane and install anti-debris shields.

The spacewalk officially began at 1431 GMT when the hatch of the Pirs docking compartment was opened, but cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov were delayed about 20 minutes in getting out of the hatch due to problems with a protective ring.

The first assignment of the 6-hour spacewalk was to relocate the Strela-1 crane from its current location to the Poisk mini research module. The Strela-1 relocation must be done to prepare for the arrival of the newest Russian module, the multipurpose laboratory module Nauka. There are two Strela cranes on the International Space Station which are used to used to move large pieces of equipment.

Kononenko and Shkaplerov will also install anti-debris shields and may perform other maintenance tasks if time allows. This is the first spacewalk performed by Anton Shkaplerov, and the third spacewalk performed by Oleg Kononenko.