Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin on board the International Space Station ( ISS) have started a space walk, Russian Space Agency Roscosmos said Monday.

The cosmonauts have opened the Pirs module's airlock and went outside. For Yurchikhin, that was his fifth space walk while Misurkin, the first one.

Their task was to replace a panel of the Zarya module and install racks for power cables and scientific equipment on the Poisk research module.

They would dismantle an 11-kilogram experiment panel from the exterior of the Poisk module.

The cosmonauts would also install five handles to facilitate the movement of crew on the exterior of the Zvezda module, dismantle the scientific equipment of Photon-Gamma on the Zvezda and test the Kurs equipment.

In July, U.S. astronaut Christopher Cassidy and European astronaut Luca Parmitano will perform space walk twice, while Misurkin and Yurchikhin will conduct two more space walks in August.