Russian spacewalkers prime space station for new laboratory

NASA via AP

In this frame grab from video provided by NASA, two Russian flight engineers perform maintenance on the International Space Station on Monday.

By Miriam Kramer

Two cosmonauts took a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Monday to prepare the orbiting outpost for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory later this year.

Clad in bulky Orlan spacesuits, cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkinspent more than six hours outside the space stationto test automated docking system cables and install equipment in preparation for the arrival of the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory, a science module slated to launch to the orbiting laboratory by the end of 2013. The spacewalk began at 9:32 a.m. ET.

Yurchikhin and Misurkin successfully tested the docking system cables that will be used to help the new Multipurpose Laboratory module dock itself at the station when it arrives. The spacewalkers also installed cable clamps to hold the cables that will route power and data from the U.S. segment of the space station to the new laboratory module. [See Photos of the Russian Spacewalk]

It wasn't all work and no play for the hard-working cosmonauts.

"Can you make the sun not shine so bright?" one of the spacewalkers joked during the orbital work. "It's shining right in my eyes."

Yurchikhin and Misurkin are part of the space station's six-personExpedition 36 crew. Their crewmates fellow cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, NASA's Chris Cassidy and Karen Nyberg, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano remained inside the International Space Station during the spacewalk.

Misurkin and Yurchikhin were lighthearted during the six-hour, 34-minute excursion. They joked with Russian Mission Control about being hungry, paused occasionally for a photo and commented on thebeauty of the Earth from space.

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Russian spacewalkers prime space station for new laboratory