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Future Space Station Crews May Be Cut to Two
By Mike Schneider
Associated Press
posted: 09:15 pm ET
24 February 2003
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Two American astronauts aboard the international space station wiggled and tugged to get out of bulky spacesuits by themselves Monday to test whether a two-person crew can stay aboard while the shuttle fleet is grounded. Normally the space station has a three-person crew. Flight managers wanted to see if the astronauts could put on and take off their spacesuits by themselves without the assistance of a third crew member. A member of a two-man crew would have to know how to take off the suit alone in case the crewmate became incapacitated. Commander Ken Bowersox and science officer Don Pettit completed the test successfully in less than the allotted three hours. The space station's third crew member, Russian flight engineer Nikolai Budarin, videotaped the test and offered suggestions to his crewmates. NASA and its international partners must decide whether to keep three people aboard the station or reduce its crew to two. A two-person crew would put less demands on supplies at the space station. Crew members now must rely on Russia's space vehicles to deliver water, food and supplies instead of the much larger shuttles. The shuttles were grounded after Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts. A decision on when the shuttles will fly again will not come until an investigation into Columbia is completed. The space station crew members conducted the spacesuit test 246 miles above Earth. Bowersox struggled for several minutes to emerge from the bulky spacesuit. He submerged his head into the suit and tugged on his sleeves. When that didn't work, he took the pants portion off. He then leaned his body onto tethers stretched across the air lock and used the resistance of the tethers to pull off the top half of the suit. Workers at NASA's Johnson Space Center applauded and Bowersox pumped his fist in the air. "The Sox kind of reminded me of a withering insect crawling out from its chrysalis,'' said Pettit, using Bowersox's nickname. ``Except that insect turns into a beautiful butterfly."
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