2 Russian cosmonauts performed 7-hour spacewalk outside the ISS

Two Russian cosmonauts performed a roughly seven-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station Thursday. Sergey Prokopyev, commander of the current Expedition 69 mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin stepped outside the orbiting lab Thursday at 10:20 a.m. and worked for about 7 hours.

Prokopyev and Petelin replaced science and communications equipment on the station’s Zvezda and Poisk modules. NASA flight engineer Stephen Bowen helped the pair set up their space suits with lights, cameras and batteries in preparation for the spacewalk.

It will be the duo’s fifth spacewalk together, and the ninth conducted outside the ISS so far in 2023, agency officials said.