CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The International Space Station partners agreed Friday to "significantly" increase the orbiting outpost's crew by 2006 or 2007.
At the conclusion of several days of meetings in Tokyo, the heads of the American, European, Russian, Japanese and Canadian space agencies issued a joint statement that did not say exactly how many extra crew will be added. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe issued a separate statement that did not address the crew-size decision at all.
The joint statement, provided by the European Space Agency, stated: "The implementation of an expanded scientific program on ISS would be supported by phased growth of ISS capabilities, significantly increased quantity of permanent crew, with crew rescue initially provided by additional Soyuz crew rescue vehicles and eventually by both Soyuz and (NASA's) Orbital Space Plane."
On Thursday, Japanese news outlets reported that the international partners were pushing to increase the crew to six permanent residents, and O'Keefe told reporters the only thing that was certain is the crew will grow to "greater than three."
The partners agreed to meet in Moscow next summer to discuss a configuration for the station beyond the stage now called "international core complete," which includes the elements in orbit, the completion of the Integrated Truss Segment and addition of the European and Japanese science labs, Japanese centrifuge module and Canadian "robot hand." They meet again in Washington in December 2003 to make a final decision.
Both the NASA and joint statements were general, saying the partners agreed to a process that will boost the station's research capabilities and accommodate the needs of all of the space agencies that have chipped in. "The process the partnership agreed to today will help move us to that objective over the next 12 to 18 months," O'Keefe said in the written statement. "This is truly a testimonial to the achievements that can be accomplished through international cooperation." The size of the station crew has been controversial since the United States started saying it might cut its contributions after revelations that NASA was $5 billion over budget on its share of the international project.
The European news release said the partners "look forward to successful accommodation of key ISS partner elements by February 2004 that allows the accommodation of remaining partner ISS utilization and infrastructure elements. This will enable improved scientific and technological capabilities in the 2006/2007 time frame."
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2002 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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