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Watch Russian cosmonauts spacewalk to check out hole in Soyuz capsule

The hole was the cause of a pressure leak over the summer.

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Sean Keane
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Launch of Soyuz-FG rocket carrying Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome

A pair of Russian cosmonauts will investigate a hole in the Soyuz MS-09 capsule attached to the International Space Station.

Sergei Savostyanov\TASS via Getty Images

Russian cosmonauts will step outside the International Space Station on Tuesday to take a close look at a hole in a Soyuz space capsule, and you can follow their journey in a livestream.

Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev will conduct a spacewalk to investigate the outside of the Soyuz MS-09, which suffered a pressure leak caused by a small hole back in August.

The pair will take samples of any residue found on the hull of the capsule -- which is used to transport astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the ISS -- and take photos of the area for further investigation before placing a thermal blanket over it.

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The hole caused speculation about sabotage in Russian media, The New York Times reported Monday, but NASA and Roscosmos held off on elaborating further until the investigation is completed.

You can watch the spacewalk, which is expected to take about six hours, from 11 a.m. ET (8 a.m. PT/4 p.m. GMT/3 a.m. Wednesday AET) on NASA TV, embedded below.

The spacewalk will be the fourth of Kononenko's career and he'll be wear a spacesuit with red stripes on this journey, while Prokopyev will bear blue stripes for his second spacewalk.

Kononenko arrived at the ISS on a Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft last Tuesday, along with NASA's Anne McClain and the Canadian Space Agency's David Saint-Jacques, weeks after the previous launch had to be aborted shortly after takeoff.

Prokopyev, who's been on the station for six and half months, will use the MS-09 he's investigating Tuesday to return to Earth with the European Space Agency's Alexander Gerst and NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor on Dec. 20.

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