Their crewmates — NASA’s Anne McClain,
Nick Hague and Christina Koch and David
Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency
— are watching their progress from inside the
orbiting outpost.
Kononenko is set to return to Earth with McClain
and Saint-Jacques next month following a 6
1/2-month stint in orbit. Ovchinin will replace
him as the station’s commander.
For the spacewalk, the two attached stickers to
their spacesuits paying tribute to Alexei Leonov,
a legendary Russia cosmonaut who became
the first human to walk in space on March 18,
- Speaking from the open space, they
congratulated Leonov on his 85th birthday.