Russian Cosmonauts stepped out for six-hour space walk around ISS

Cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko donned their Orlan spacesuits Friday, with the help of Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, before stepping outside for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk.

The Russians spent the weekend preparing for the stroll; the pair will spend most of their time outside fixing up their cosmic home.

The astronauts climbed into their Orlan spacesuits on Friday to do a fit-check ahead of the jaunt, during which they will shift the Strela-2 hand-operated crane from the Pirs docking compartment to the Zarya module.

Strela-2 had to be moved to prepare Pirs for its replacement: a new laboratory and docking module slated to launch to the station next year, according to NASA.

Strela-1 was already taken off Pirs and stuck on the Poisk Mini-Research Module in February.

Since they're out there anyway, the cosmonauts will also deploy a small satellite and install micrometeoroid debris shields on the Zvezda module.

If they still have time after that, Padalka and Malenchenko could be asked to grab two experiment panels strapped to the outside of the station that are being used to assess how different materials react to the vacuum of space.