14 DAY TRIAL // Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are now getting ready to conduct a new extra-vehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk, outside the orbital facility today. This will be the first such event where the astronauts will be bearing an Olympic torch.
The torch arrived on the station with the Expedition 38 crew, which launched aboard their Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome a couple of days ago. It will return to Earth tomorrow, alongside three Expedition 37 astronauts, aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M capsule.
The spacewalk will be conducted by Sergey Ryazanskiy and Oleg Kotov, both cosmonauts with the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos). NASA TV will be broadcasting a life feed of the event starting at 9:00 am EST (1400 GMT), Space reports.
After posing with the Olympic torch, Ryazanskiy and Kotov will start installing a platform for a new camera system outside the ISS, in addition to conducting other maintenance tasks. Their EVA is scheduled to last a little over three hours.