Five NASA
astronauts held a reunion of sorts in Houston, Texas Thursday to celebrate the
upcoming birthday of a rather bulky five-year-old to be: the International Space
Station (ISS) currently orbiting Earth.
The
astronauts - all of them space station veterans- gathered at NASA's Johnson Space
Center (JSC) to reminisce about their experiences aboard the ISS, which will
hit the five-year mark of manned operations on Nov. 2.
"It was so
long ago, the memories have almost faded," said retired astronaut Jim Voss, who
flew aboard the ISS in 2001 as one of three members of the Expedition
2 crew, of his time in orbit. "It was really very special, we had prepared
[for it] for over four years."
Voss was
joined by Expedition
5 astronaut Peggy Whitson, Expedition 7's
Ed Lu and Expedition
8 commander Michael Foale, with Michael Fincke - who served as flight
engineer during the ninth ISS mission
- appearing via video link from Russia's cosmonaut training center in Star City.
The space station's current crew - Expedition
12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev - recorded a
video statement for reporters and NASA employees.
"It is a
unique honor," McArthur said of the opportunity to contribute to humanity's
ongoing presence in space. His comments came on the station's 1,820th
day of operation, NASA officials added.
Astronauts
have lived and worked aboard the ISS continuously since the arrival of its
first three-member crew - Expedition
1's Bill Shepard, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei
Krikalev - in 2000 under an international effort that, today, relies on the
contributions of 16 nations and two manned spacecraft designs; NASA's space
shuttles and Russia's Soyuz vehicles.
"I think
the International Space Station represents a big symbol [of cooperation]," said
Whitson, who is hoping for another tour aboard the station. "What makes it
special is that it's not just a bunch of people who sit back and talk about
cooperation, we actually built something out of it."
Russia's
robust Soyuz
and unmanned Progress
spacecraft, which resupply the ISS with food, water, spare parts other
necessities every six months, have proven vital to the station's survival since
the 2003 Columbia accident
that stalled NASA's shuttle flights. The agency's shuttle fleet returned to
service in July with Discovery's STS-114
launch, though the next flight is not expected until at least May
2006.
"The
Russians are, as you say, carrying a pretty fare share of the partnership at
the moment, and I think that's the value of the partnership," Foale told
reporters, adding that NASA aided Russia to continue its operation of space station
Mir. "I think, actually, the favor has been returned in the last couple of
years."
The drop
in NASA shuttle flights to the ISS has limited crews to two astronauts due to
the decreased availability of supplies and prolonged the station's completion,
since orbiters are the only vehicles capable of launching the orbital platform's
massive components. The next ISS construction flight will not flight until after
the NASA's Discovery's STS-121 spaceflight- the agency's second return to
flight mission - next May, NASA officials have said.
But the astronauts
said Thursday that despite its troubles, the space station is a vital orbital
platform for the science and human physiology experiments needed to push human
explorers back toward the Moon and beyond. While the move to two-person crews has
cut down the amount of science that can be performed aboard the ISS, there has
never been enough time to fit in all the experiments researchers hoped for,
they added.
"You can't
lose sight of the big picture," said Lu, who served as flight engineer during 2003's
Expedition 7, marking the first two-person crew and the first
manned spaceflight after the Columbia accident. "When you step back and
take a look at what we're trying to do...it's amazing."
Last month,
NASA officials announced
plans to return astronauts to the moon by 2018 aboard its planned Crew
Exploration Vehicle, which could deliver four astronauts to the lunar surface
or six astronauts to the ISS. Under those plans, the space station is expected
to be completed by 2010, the retirement
deadline for NASA's shuttle fleet.
Fincke, who
along with Expedition 9 commander Gennady Padalka performed the first spacewalk
on U.S. station segment using Russian-built Orlan spacesuits, said NASA and the
U.S. must continue to lead the way in space exploration.
"We're the
richest country in the world," Fincke said. "We can't afford not to look at
this frontier."
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