The spacewalk, started at 01:05 p.m. Moscow time (1005 GMT) and will last for about six hours, is intended to prepare new docking port.

Astronauts Maxim Surayev and Oleg Kotov will run cables for the integration of the Poisk study module into the Zvezda service module, as well as install antennas, valves and railings on the Poisk, said Valery Lyndin, the spokesman for the Mission Control.

The crew will also dismantle containers with biological material from the outside of the Pirs docking module, Lyndin said, adding that the containers have been exposed to space for over a year and a half.

Lyndin also said the spacewalk is made in the new Russian Orlan-MK space suits that were unveiled last summer.

This is a debut spacewalk for Surayev. Though Kotov had made two spacewalks during the previous mission, it's also the first time he works outside the space station in the new spacesuit.

Other astronauts aboard the ISS, Soichi Noguchi of Japan and NASA's Jeffrey Williams and Timothy Creamer, will be ensuring the safety of their colleagues and the telecasting of the extravehicular activities through cameras fixed to the manipulatorarm.

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