Russian cosmonauts prep for two spacewalks outside ISS: Watch live

Russian cosmonauts are gearing up for a pair of spacewalks - scheduled for Monday, April 18, and Thursday, April 28 - outside the International Space Station (ISS) to ready the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module for the European Robotic Arm (ERA).

Roscosmos Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev will exit the space-facing Poisk module of the station's Russian segment for a seven-hour excursion to activate the new robotic arm attached to the Nauka module. The upcoming spacewalk will be the fourth in Artemyev's career and the first for Matveev.

During the April 18 spacewalk, the Russian duo will install and connect a control panel for the European robotic arm, a 37-foot-long manipulator system mounted to the Nauka module. The duo will also remove protective covers from the arm and install handrails on the module. The arm will be used to move spacewalkers and payloads around the Russian segment of ISS.

During the second excursion, the spacewalkers will jettison thermal blankets used to protect the arm during its July 2021 launch with Nauka. They will also flex the arm's joints, release launch restraints, and monitor the arm's ability to use two grapple fixtures.

NASA will provide live coverage of both spacewalks, starting at 10 a.m. EDT each day on the agency's website, NASA TV and the NASA app. Each spacewalk is scheduled to begin around 10:25 a.m.

NASA said that additional spacewalks are planned to continue to outfit the European robotic arm and to activate Nauka's airlock for future spacewalks.

NASA will provide coverage of two Russian spacewalks on April 18 and 28 as cosmonauts work to activate a new robotic arm attached to the Nauka module. More details...https://t.co/YekZykbqZI

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) April 13, 2022