We'll leave for a moment, we'll be back soon * The Russians are proposing to perform a spacewalk that will leave the International Space Station temporarily empty. Americans are afraid
A spacewalk on the International Space Station, April 2001. In previous cases, a third astronaut remained on the station. Photo: NASA
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There were only four batteries, the type found in walkie-talkies and night vision equipment. But when NASA officials discovered last year that Russian space program managers had approved the use of the four batteries on the International Space Station without properly testing them, they strongly objected. According to them, the batteries can be toxic and there is also a possibility, albeit small, that they will explode.
The batteries did not explode and did not cause poisoning, but the friction that occurred at Etain highlighted the existing dispute between the Americans, who have a high level of safety awareness, and the Russians, who describe their approach as "more flexible". These are two worldviews, explained Shirley McCarthy, former head of the advisory committee for safety issues at NASA: from the point of view of the Americans, it is necessary to prove that a certain device or operation is safe. The Russian approach is: "Prove that it's not safe".
The tensions regarding the different approaches of the two partners in the International Space Station are now being felt even more strongly in Houston and Moscow. That's because the two countries are currently debating whether to allow the current space station crew, which consists of just two people - astronaut Michael Powell and cosmonaut Alexander Caleri - to perform a spacewalk. The spacewalk will leave the space station temporarily empty. In previous spacewalks on the International Space Station, the third crew member remained inside the station.
The Russians do not consider the operation dangerous. They performed spacewalks at the "Mir" space station when there were only two cosmonauts in it, and they are pushing for a spacewalk to be performed at the end of February, in which preparatory work will be done for the arrival of a cargo spaceship. The Americans, on the other hand, fear a temporary abandonment of the space station.
Jerry Lininger, a former astronaut who was on a mission to Mir in 1997, said that there must be a compromise between the two approaches. According to him, "the Russians are on one side of the equilibrium point, and the Americans are on the other side."
Ed Lu, an astronaut who stayed on the International Space Station for six months and returned to Earth last month, said he did not notice any difference between the American and Russian approaches to safety issues. However, members of NASA's space safety advisory team do not think so. Before resigning in September as one man, following the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Columbia disaster, the team members cited two recent cases in which communication problems on the ground between the Russians and the Americans caused problems with the location of the space station.
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