The two cosmonauts will open Mir's hatch at 1040 GMT for a five-hour space walk, during which they will practise plugging holes in the craft with a special glue, Itar-Tass quoted the mission control centre as saying.

The cosmonauts will also inspect a solar battery deployed on the space station.

Zalyotin and Kaleri recently plugged an airhole which appeared in Mir last spring. The hole had been slowly decreasing the pressure inside the ageing Mir space station which has already been retired once. The current mission is the first to be privately funded.

The cosmonauts are due to remain on board until June 2, after which Mir will be switched to automatic pilot.

Their mission could be prolonged to September if MirCorp finds the necessay funding.

MirStation

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005
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