14 DAY TRIAL // Two Russian cosmonauts, both members of Expedition 30 to the International Space Station (ISS), are seen here conducting the first extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of 2012, on February 16. Their mission was to start preparations for removing the Pirs module from the orbital lab.
Built by the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos), the Pirs Docking Module needs to be changed because it is gradually degenerating. A new module is scheduled to arrive on the ISS later this year, and take the spot that Pirs occupies now.
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov (RosCosmos) carried out the spacewalk in order to remove one of the Strela manual cranes from the Pirs module, and affix it to the Zvezda Service Module. The same will be done to the remaining Strela, during a future spacewalk.