28 Jun 2019 11:48

ISS' Russian crewmembers to go on another spacewalk in 2019 - cosmonaut Skvortsov

STAR CITY. June 28 (Interfax) - Russian cosmonauts will go on another spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2019, cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov told the press.

"There will be another spacewalk this year. It had been planned for December 12, but was moved to November 20 with the partners' consent. Assignments have been given, and a drill has taken place. The crew has sufficient training to do it," Skvortsov said.

Earlier reports said that the extravehicular mission accomplished by cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Alexei Ovchinin on May 29 would be the only spacewalk of the ISS' Russian crewmembers in 2019. But cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov said later that Skvortsov might have to go on another spacewalk together with Oleg Skripochka after the latter's arrival at the ISS on September 25.

The next expedition will go to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on board the Soyuz MS-13 spaceship at 7:28 p.m. Moscow time on July 20. The spaceship will be manned by Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, Luca Parmitano of the ESA, and Andrew Morgan of NASA.

Their backups are Sergei Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, Thomas Marshburn of NASA, and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA.