Russian cosmonauts will launch nano-satellites during their spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS) in August, Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev said on Tuesday.

The spacewalk will be 85% scientific as the cosmonauts will carry out the Ikarus experiment, which aims to study the migration of animals, he noted. This experiment will be crucial, for example, for the safety of flights and their routes, he added.

Another scientific experiment called Test is intended to take bio-samples from the surface of the world’s sole orbiter, the cosmonaut said.

"Work will also be carried out to clean the station’s surface from the equipment that has used up its service life. There will be launches of nano-satellites," he said.

The old equipment will be manually discarded from the station towards the Earth and the cosmonauts will also hand launch students’ nano-satellites, he specified.

Artemyev is the commander of the crew of the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft that will blast off towards the space station from the launch site No. 1 (the Gagarin launch pad) at 20:44 Moscow time on March 21.

The Soyuz spacecraft is due to dock with the world’s sole orbiter two days after the launch (at 22:41 Moscow time on March 23). The mission’s crew also comprises NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold.

Quelle: TASS