Posted: Mon, Feb 23, 2004, 9:25 AM ET (1425 GMT)
The two-man crew of the International Space Station will perform a spacewalk Thursday, leaving the station unoccupied for several hours despite concerns from some station officials that the EVA is "a risk not worth taking." Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri are slated to spend five and a half hours outside the station starting at 4 pm EST (2100 GMT) Thursday. The two will spend most of the EVA retrieving experiments mounted on the exterior of the station and installing new ones. They also plan to perform an general inspection of a portion of the Zvezda module during the spacewalk. The Washington Post reported Monday that some station managers last year tried to block the EVA because of the risks involved in carrying out a spacewalk on the station with no one inside to monitor the station and spacewalkers. Russian officials insisted the spacewalk take place, however, and NASA later concluded the risks were acceptable.

Related Links:

•  Washington Post article
•  Reuters article
•  NASA press release
•  NASA ISS EVA information