Russian cosmonauts complete spacewalk

MOSCOW - Two Russian cosmonauts completed their spacewalk and returned to the International Space Station (ISS), Russia's Mission Control said Tuesday.

Gennady Padalka and Yury Malenchenko had spent six hours in open space wearing Russian-made Orlan-MK computerized spacesuits and then returned to the ISS at 1:28 am Moscow time on Tuesday (2128 GMT on Monday).

Other four crew members had been waiting for them inside the station.

The two cosmonauts opened the station's hatches at 7:38 pm Moscow time (1538 GMT) on Monday, delayed by nearly one hour of scheduled 6:40 pm Moscow time (1440 GMT) due to minor problems with an airlock.

Despite the incident, the cosmonauts completed all the tasks set. They have moved a mechanic arm between two ISS modules, launched a scientific microsatellite "Sphere", assembled meteorite protection shield at Zvezda module, removed a box with biological samples and have done some other maintenance work.

This was Padalka's ninth spacewalk and Malenchenko's fifth one. It was also the first spacewalk of the 32nd expedition of the ISS and the second this year.