Soyuz MS-09 during spacewalk

On 11 December 2018 two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station to inspect the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopyev spent 7 hours and 45 minutes on their spacewalk to examine the hull of the Soyuz and apply a thermal blanket. They also retrieved science experiments from the Rassvet module before heading back inside.

A leak was detected in the Soyuz MS-09's orbital module a few months earlier and repaired, the spacewalk was to get a better understanding of how it could have happened. The orbital module does not return to Earth but burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere. Astronauts return to Earth in the descent module. 

This picture was taken by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst during his second spaceflight mission called Horizons.