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Quite right; both bear the name Sergey, spelled exactly the same. This is Ryzhikov’s second time on the space station and Kud-Sverchkov’s first. And it is the first spacewalk for both cosmonauts.
Worried about distinguishing the two cosmonauts? Ryzhikov, the current commander of Expedition 64, will wear a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes while Kud-Sverchkov will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes as an extravehicular 2 crew member.
Ryzhikov will be designated EV1 and Kud-Sverchkov will be designated EV2 – which is less confusing than when they were called “Sergey 1” and “Sergey 2” during a press conference appearance aboard the space station in October.
Kate Rubins, the NASA astronaut who left with the cosmonauts in October from Kazakhstan, will help the boys dress up and track their progress during the spacewalk.
Live coverage of the spacewalk, which begins at 9:30 am ET, will be streamed on the NASA website. The spacewalk is expected to take about six hours.
This is the 47th Russian spacewalk contributing to the assembly and maintenance of the station, the 232nd overall spacewalk and the eighth this year.
First, the cosmonauts will inspect the hatch for any leaks outside the Russian Poisk module as it will be used as an airlock once the new module arrives.
The new Russian module of the multifunctional laboratory, called “Nauka”, which in Russian means “science”, will replace the Russian module Pirs. The Pirs will be decommissioned, dropped and disposed of in the future.
Nauka will be launched next year from Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, several spacewalks will be needed to transfer resources from Pirs and the Zarya module to prepare for Nauka’s arrival in April 2021.
“We welcome all modules, especially if they have stowage space,” Rubins said in October.
And then there were 7
Zero-gravity indicators, usually cute toys, let the crew know when they have reached space after launch. As soon as the toy starts to float, they know they are in space.
Yuri, a little cosmonaut knitted by Kud-Sverchkov’s wife Olga, accompanied them on their October launch. Each crew can choose their own gauge, according to NASA.
The crew-1 took NASA astronauts Victor Glover Jr., Michael Hopkins and Shannon Walker, and Japanese Soichi Noguchi to the space station for their six-month stay.
NASA’s Commercial Crew program can expand the amount of astronauts on the space station, which means more science and even new types of experiments can take place in the unique microgravity environment.
The seven crew members held a welcome ceremony on Tuesday.
It is a historic moment for the space station. This will be the first long-term crew to include seven members in the space station’s 20 years. November 2 marked 20 years of continuous human presence on the space station.
Previously, the space station housed up to 13 people, but only for a few days as crews came and went.
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