ISS partners mull unique photo-op

 

The international space station (ISS) partners are currently discussing a possibility to stage an extraordinary photo opportunity in March that would yield photo and video images of the space station with all current U.S., Russian, European and Japanese spacecraft docked at the outpost, the press service of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said.

If all goes well and space shuttle Discovery arrives at the International Space Station in late February, there will be a distinctive configuration: all of the international partners will have a vehicle docked to the completed ISS.

NASA advanced a proposal to put three astronauts in one of the Russia's Soyuz capsules that are docked to the station, have them undock and fly around to take pictures of the entire complex.

Station skipper Scott Kelly and Russian flight engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka would climb aboard their Soyuz spacecraft and then back away to a vantage point where they could capture images of the entire outpost.

The photo shooting would be carried out only if all higher-priority work is completed by the arrival of Discovery shuttle.

MOSCOW, February 19 (RIA Novosti) 

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