By Tom Rose
A video posted to YouTube shows the real danger
astronauts face when they undertake a spacewalk, as a flashing, spinning UFO
buzzes the ISS, coming a bit too close for comfort.
The short clip included here, taken from a
six-hour video of the spacewalk conducted by astronauts aboard the International
Space Station on Monday, shows cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko as he performs,
appropriately enough, the task of affixing debris barriers on the ISS, designed
for greater safety against floating, lethal objects.
As he converses with ground control, a spinning,
flashing, unidentified flying object whizzes past at incredible speed. It's kind
of unnerving because scientists are very good at pointing the ISS into areas of
space safer from that kind of hazard.
It's not known exactly what this UFO is, but it's a sure bet
that if it had crashed into the space station, or worse, hit the astronaut, it
would have been a monumental disaster.
Seeing the dangers posed by objects floating in
the vacuum provides a deeper perspective of the true toughness of space
travel.
It's not all glory, and it takes plenty of
guts... Here's the video:
