On Thursday, the ISS will be empty by 5 hours

On Thursday, the International Space Station will be empty for several hours, during which both astronauts will be in outer space. According to The Washington Post , the NASA leadership and the Russian side decided to take risk. To carry out a large amount of work in space, the station will immediately leave Russian Alexander Kaleri and Briton Michael Foul.

On Thursday evening, during their absence, which will last 5 hours and 40 minutes, the ISS will control "on devices" from the ground.

According to the newspaper, unique scientific experiments will be carried out in open space - this work is not urgent, but extremely important.

In the July report, compiled by NASA experts, the output of the two cosmonauts, necessary for the implementation of scientific work, was recommended to be postponed until the third member of the crew arrived at the ISS. The American report emphasized that “the game is not worth the candle”, and the risk while the ISS will be left without a crew is too large.

Reuters claims that "the Russians refused to sign the document," referring to the fact that the exit to the outer space is planned, and it must be implemented.

According to the American newspaper, experiments that astronauts should be carried out in outer space are carried out as part of cooperation with European and Japanese space agencies. The Russians are very valuable with this cooperation, and, in addition, significant money is relied on for the implementation of experiments, which are so necessary for the Russian space program.