So, Who's Watching The Place?
The two-man crew of the international space station will venture
outside the craft at the same time this week, despite earlier
concerns that the exercise was "a risk not worth taking," The
Washington Post reported on Monday. The Post cited NASA documents
obtained by the newspaper. Ground controllers are to fly the empty
space station, while British-born NASA astronaut Michael Foale and
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri conduct the spacewalk, leaving
no one inside to monitor systems directly or assist in a crisis,
the newspaper said. According to the Post, the Russians have made
about 50 such spacewalks, but this would mark the first for the
U.S.-led space station.