CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In space for more than a month now, one of the U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station says he and his crewmates are in the midst of "an incredible adventure."
At the same time, though, outpost flight engineer Daniel Bursch already misses some of the more simple pleasures on Earth -- such as being rousted from bed by his kids or taking a breath of fresh air on a crisp winter morning.
"My family is probably the Number One thing I miss -- whether it's waking up, with the kids coming into the room and waking me up, or going outside," Bursch said Thursday in a space-to-ground interview with a television reporter from his hometown, Vestal, N.Y.
"And maybe just the different smells you get outside," he added. "It's just that the smell up here is just always the same. It's not bad. It just kind of never changes much."
A married father of four, Bursch boarded the station in December along with Expedition Four commander Yuri Onufrienko and fellow flight engineer Carl Walz. The three are in the midst of a planned five-and-a-half-month tour aboard the international station.
In the 35 days since they took the helm of the station, the three men already have started up many of the 65 U.S. and Russian science experiments they plan to carry out on the outpost, which is circling some 247 miles (395 kilometers) above Earth.They also have unpacked 1.5 tons of supplies and equipment from a Russian Progress cargo carrier, tested the station's $600 million Canadian robot arm and started upgrading the station's U.S. command and control computers.
During the past week they've been busy gearing up for a spacewalk.
"Every minute is filled with something," Bursch said. "It seems like there is never a dull moment up here."
Bursch will be watching on from inside the station next Monday when Onufrienko and Walz venture outside the outpost on a spacewalk primarily aimed at moving a cargo boom into position on the exterior of the station's Russian airlock.
A ham radio antenna also will be set up on the outer hull of the station's Russian-built crew quarters during the six-hour excursion, which is slated to begin about 3:50 p.m. EST (2050 GMT).
The sortie will be the first of two planned at the outpost this month. The second will come Jan. 25 as Onufrienko and Bursch set up three other ham radio antennas at the rear end of the Zvezda crew module.
Metal deflectors and contamination monitors also will be mounted next to Zvezda steering thrusters on that spacewalk, and the pair will retrieve a materials science experiment.
Both spacewalks will be staged from the station's Russian-built Pirs airlock, and Russian Orlan spacesuits will be worn by the spacewalkers during both excursions.
All in all, Bursch -- a U.S. Navy captain -- said his station tour to date has seemed somewhat like a lengthy deployment aboard an aircraft carrier.
"But it's quite different. If you can think of kind of not being able to get out of your stateroom for the six months, it's different," he said. "All I can say is it's an incredible adventure."
The food, meanwhile, apparently is just as good as meals served aboard Navy ships.
"We have a mixture of Russian and U.S. food, and we really do have quite a variety," Bursch said. "And overall, it's excellent."
But, he added: "It sure would be nice to get a pizza and beer sometimes."
Launched Dec. 5, the Expedition Four crew will greet their first visitors in early April when shuttle Atlantis sets sail on a mission to deliver the central segment of the station's metallic truss.
A Russian cosmonaut, a European astronaut and South African Internet entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth then will fly to the station in late April to deliver a fresh lifeboat to the outpost.
That flight likely will be pushed back to April 25 from April 17 to give Russian engineers more time to ready the Soyuz for flight, NASA officials said.
As it stands, Bursch and his station crewmates remain scheduled to return to Earth aboard shuttle Endeavour in mid-May.
Their replacements -- U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonauts Valeri Korzun and Sergei Treschev -- will be ferried up to the station aboard Endeavour and then remain there until mid-September.
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