Russian cosmonauts launch small satellite during spacewalk

Two Russian cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have hand-launched a miniature satellite during a multi-hour spacewalk, Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said Monday.

"The nano-satellite NS-1 was placed on orbit during the spacewalk by Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The 1.5-kg device has been launched in the interests of energy space-rocket corporations to test the micro-electronics and optical equipment.

The spacewalk started at 18:00 Moscow time (1400 GMT) and was planned to last for more than six hours.

Beside the NS-1 launch, the cosmonauts were also conducting a range of maintenance and servicing work on the ISS outer surface.

This was the 46th spacewalk undertaken by the Russian cosmonauts on the ISS since the start of the program. This year, Russian cosmonauts have already conducted two spacewalks and one more has been planned for later this year.