CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The crew of the International Space Station got a VIP call Thursday from NASA's new boss, and what agency administrator Sean O'Keefe didn't say was just as interesting as what he did say.
Touring Johnson Space Center with U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, O'Keefe and the congressman made small talk during a space-to-ground chat with Russian station commander Yuri Onufrienko and U.S. flight engineers Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch.
Just two days after being ceremonially sworn into the NASA administrator post by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, O'Keefe wanted to know how the station crewmates were faring in orbit, and how their families were doing back on Earth.
He kidded the Americans about their nicknames -- Walz, a singer in an all-astronaut band goes by Elvis, and Bursch is known as Danno -- and he inquired about work that remains to be done by the crew over the next four months.
"What's the biggest challenge you guys are going to face here between now and the time you get to come back home?" O'Keefe asked.
"I think the biggest challenge for me is probably just the mental aspect of this combination of kind of a naval deployment and also just the isolation," Bursch replied.
"If I want to look at objectives, one of my biggest objectives is maybe just to show the world what we can do when countries work together."No mention, meanwhile, was made of the anticipated $4.8 billion station cost overrun or how O'Keefe plans to handle the project's serious financial problems.
And there was no talk about whether the Bush Administration intends to maintain commitments to NASA's international partners by building a U.S. crew module and an emergency lifeboat.
Both the U.S. dormitory module and an American crew rescue vehicle have been cut -- at least temporarily -- from the program until NASA can rein in the projected cost overrun.
Both components, however, are key to expanding station staffing levels from three to six or seven, a capability considered crucial to carrying out a robust research program aboard the orbiting outpost.
"We know that the agency has some big challenges ahead of it," Bursch told O'Keefe. "I think we're all behind you 1,000 percent and ready to support whichever way the agency steers in the future. And we just hope it's forward."
"We are very, very proud of what you all are doing up there," O'Keefe said. "It's important. We feel an obligation every day to make sure you get all the support you need and everything you have to have in order to do the mission effectively and come back home safely."
Launched Dec. 5, Onufrienko, Bursch and Walz are in the midst of a five-and-a-half-month tour of duty aboard the station. The trio remains scheduled to return to Earth in mid-May.
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