The Historical Precedent of the Expedition 8 EVA

Expedition 8 to the International Space Station (ISS) was a two-person mission from 20 October 2003 to 29 April 2004. NASA’s representative was British-born Dr Michael Foale, whilst Roscosmos’ cosmonaut was Aleksandr Kaleri. During the mission, maintenance of the ISS, as well as performing science in vacuum, required use of Russian ORLAN spacesuits in which Foale and Kaleri conducted the first ever extravehicular activity (EVA) on the ISS without anyone remaining inside the station or craft as a “watchman.” There have only ever been two scheduled EVA’s under such conditions (the others followed during Expedition 9), meaning Foale and Kaleri undertook a historic and risky precedent. Despite their historic EVA being cut short, this risky venture involved much exploration of how such an EVA could be done and it is unlikely that EVAs without a watchman will take place in the future.