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Cosmonauts Embark on 6-hour Spacewalk Outside ISS


The sun rises above a mosque before the prayer for Eid al-Fitr in Lipljan, Kosovo.
The sun rises above a mosque before the prayer for Eid al-Fitr in Lipljan, Kosovo.

A pair of Russian cosmonauts began their working week on Monday by cleaning the windows of the International Space Station (ISS), floating more than 320 km (200 miles) above the Earth's surface.

Station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko left the station's Pirs module at 1520 GMT, embarking on a six-hour spacewalk to install new equipment and carry out maintenance tasks.

The cosmonauts quickly completed their first task, installing equipment to help crew members maneuver outside the ISS, before cleaning a porthole window to remove years of dirt left by exhaust fumes from visiting ships.

"They developed a (cleaning) tool kit with two swabs with handles on them. The swabs are kind of a type of terry cloth," spacewalk specialist Devan Bolch said in a NASA video published before the walk.

"It's kind of similar to what you would use on your car headlights, when they get hazy, to clean them."

The expedition is the 188th ISS spacewalk and the tenth for Padalka, who has spent more time in space than any other human.

It is Kornienko's second venture outside the station - a $100 billion research laboratory owned and operated by a partnership of 15 nations.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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