The other satellites deployed Thursday
Each weighs just 10 to 24 pounds. They're expected to orbit for five to six months.
One commemorates the 60th anniversary of the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1, launched Oct. 4, 1957, by the Soviet Union. Another pays tribute to Russia's father of rocketry, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He was born 160 years ago next month.
The remaining two small satellites involve navigation and other experiments.
Yurchikhin and Ryazanskiy completed the satellite releases within an hour of venturing outside. Barely a minute passed between a few of the launches. The rest of their work took longer than expected, however, and Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow sent the planned six-hour spacewalk into overtime. It ended up lasting 7 1/2 hours, and the cosmonauts said their hands were tired. All but one task got done.
"We will have actually some grounds to get drunk today, I think," one of the cosmonauts joked in Russian. A flight controller replied that he'd do it for them.
