May 31
Two Russian cosmonauts have braved the perils of space and climbed out of the international space station to install protective panels.

The first-time spacewalkers were attaching metal shields to protect the station from dangerous space debris.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov opened a hatch on the Russian side of the space station and went for a spacewalk lasting nearly six hours.

Both men were tethered during the spacewalk to keep them from floating away. The station's third occupant, U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams, remained inside.

Space debris includes objects such as discarded rocket parts, planetary dust and rocks. Scientists consider it the greatest threat to the space station, orbiting about 220 miles (355 kilometers) above Earth.
Kotov rode at the end of a crane operated by Yurchikhin to reach the stack of aluminum panels about 18 metres from the hatch.

The 17 protective panels, each about 60 by 90 centimetres were delivered to the station last December and left outside in a formation dubbed "the Christmas tree."

The cosmonauts installed five of the panels on a Russian section of the space station, and the others will be put in place during a spacewalk next week.

An independent safety task force in February said that there was a nine per cent risk that the space station, once completed in 2010, could be hit with space debris severe enough to cause the loss of the outpost or crew members. That risk estimate was reduced to 5 percent if protective panels were installed on Russian portions of the space station.

Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts are scheduled to fly to the station early next month. The space station circles the Earth every 90 minutes

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