Russian cosmonauts perform 6 hour space walk

Two Russian cosmonauts on Monday embarked on a six-hour space walk from the International Space Station to deploy a mini satellite in honour of Yuri Gagarin and carry out routine maintenance work.

Sergei Volkov and Alexander Samokutyaev, wearing Russian Orlan-K space suits, opened the hatch of the ISS at 1450 GMT, 20 minutes behind schedule, to start the space walk, television pictures showed.

They are to deploy a micro-satellite that will carry out student experiments and also emit greetings in 17 languages commemorating the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s historic space flight on April 12, 1961, Russian space agency Roskosmos said.

Amateur radio experts on earth will be able to hear the signals.

Photographs are also due to be taken of portraits of Gagarin and the father of the Soviet space programme Sergei Korolyev against the backdrop of the earth.

The pair will also move a cargo boom from one airlock to another and install a prototype laser communications system.