Twin astronauts may meet up in space

Astronaut Mark Kelly may meet up with identical twin brother Scott Kelly in orbit next year.
 
Astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly - who are identical twin brothers - are sharing via Twitter what it is like to be fellow space commanders, and they may even meet each other in orbit next year.

The spaceflying brothers are each gearing up to command different spacecraft: Mark is preparing to take the helm of NASA's STS-134 shuttle mission, while Scott is will lead the international space station's Expedition 26 crew. Both missions are slated to launch for 2010.

If the current schedule holds, the two may meet in space during their respective commands next summer. In the meantime, the Kelly brothers are undergoing rigorous training - Mark mainly from Houston, and Scott from Houston, as well as Tsukuba, Japan, and Star City, Russia, and other countries where station crews train.

Like some other astronauts, the Kelly brothers are documenting their spaceflight training on Twitter. Mark Kelly writes under the name ShuttleCDRKelly.

"About to cram myself into the EMU for 6 hours underwater," he wrote last week, describing the spacewalk training astronauts undergo in a giant swimming pool to approximate the effects of microgravity.