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| The Soyuz rocket used to launch the Expedition One crew to the ISS on Oct. 31, 2000.
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Space Station Is Opened For Business As Expedition One Crew Floats Aboard
By Todd Halvorson
Cape Canaveral
posted: 11:00 am ET
02 November 2000
ET
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This is an update to a story first posted at 7 a.m. EST.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The International Space Station's first full-time tenants hitched a modern-day Conestoga wagon to the frontier outpost Thursday, opening up a new era of exploration that could lead to human colonization of the universe. | Live Coverage |  SPACE.com carries NASA TV around-the-clock so you can always tune in to the very latest news about Space Station Alpha, the Space Shuttle and other space agency programs.Live streaming video. |
Strapped into a bug-shaped Soyuz spacecraft, U.S. astronaut William Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts -- Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev -- pulled up to the station at 4:21 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (09:21 GMT). The high-flying link-up came as the Soyuz and the 13-story complex soared 240 miles (384 kilometers) above Kazakhstan, home of the storied spaceport from which the so-called Expedition One crew launched two days ago. Ninety minutes later, the vanguard crew floated through submarine-like hatches and began setting up camp within the station, heralding the start of what could be the permanent human occupation of low Earth orbit. What's more, NASA officials say the historic hatch opening potentially could pave the way for pioneering human expeditions both into -- and perhaps out of -- the solar system. "You would hope that from this point on we will never have a period when humans are not living in space," said Jim Van Laak, a senior NASA space station project manager. "We'll learn to conquer low Earth orbit -- how to keep people alive (in space) for years at a time -- and then move on to the moon and on to Mars," he said. "And who knows where we can go from there." The flawless docking capped a two-day trip that started with a thundering launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome. ~With veteran cosmonaut Gidzenko at the controls, the Soyuz spacecraft made a looping approach to the station, which now is made up of three permanent wings.
The International Space Station is seen from a camera on the Soyuz spacecraft just moments before the 4:21 a.m. EST docking. Image from NASA TV.
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They include: A bus-sized crew module that doubles as a command post, a Russian space tug now serving as a warehouse and an American docking module that ultimately will provide a pressurized passageway to all parts of the growing station. Black and white images of the 80-ton outpost were beamed back to Earth from the Soyuz as the spacecraft eased up to a docking port at the rear of the station's crew module. Some 500 people at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow erupted into applause as the Soyuz capsule linked up with the station. Computer commands then were sent to close docking ring latches, joining the two craft in a metallic embrace. Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev spent the next hour and a half conducting pressure checks to make certain there was an airtight seal between the craft. Two hatches leading into the station's crew quarters then swung open, enabling the trio to start setting up shop within the station. "Now make this ship come alive!" Shepherd exclaimed. The first order of business: Flipping on the lights and activating an alarm system. The three veteran space fliers then set out to set up a makeshift galley, activate a water supply system, turn on the toilet and establish TV and radio links with ground controllers. ~Dressed in identical blue flight suits that topped white crew neck jerseys, Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev clearly were ecstatic to be floating within the outpost's crew module, which is an upgraded model of the core lab of Russia's aging Mir space station.
Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev opens the hatch to Space Station Alpha and floats inside an hour after the crew docked their Soyuz capsule to the outpost. Image from NASA TV.
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After all, the trio had been training for the epoch-opening flight for almost five years. "I'd like to say we're all really glad to be here. It was a long journey but we've made it," Shepherd said. "We opened the hatches to the station, and it was very pleasant to find ourselves in a place that is going to be our home, with good clean air. We are getting ready to set up for the permanent habitation of the space station," Krikalev chimed in. "It's a great moment for all of us," Shepherd added. Outfitted with a small camcorder, the Expedition One crew beamed back video of the moments leading up to their long-awaited entry into the station. Broadcast on NASA TV and carried live on SPACE.com, the video showed the three men huddled within a dark passageway between the main part of their crew quarters and the Soyuz spacecraft, which now will serve as an emergency lifeboat for the trio. The next footage from the station showed the station's occupants beaming within their crew quarters, carrying out a string of conversations with U.S. and Russian space agency honchos gathered in the Russian control center. "Let's look upon this as the real opening of the international space frontier - not just for one country, but for Russia, America, Europe, Japan, Canada and all that are to follow," NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin told the crew. "You're right that there are a lot of people behind us, to keep the space station going, and go other places as we can," Shepherd replied. "We're just starting a long journey." Coming up in the next two weeks: A hard push to make the station habitable for the long term. A crucial oxygen generation machine, a carbon dioxide scrubber and other key life support systems will be activated and tested to make certain a breathable atmosphere can be sustained in the otherwise deadly vacuum of space. A laptop computer network will be set up so key station systems can be monitored from any of its wings, and the crew also will outfit an onboard medical center and install exercise equipment key to keeping fit during extended stays in weightlessness. "They've got about two weeks of very intense activity to get the spaceship ready to call home," Van Laak said. ~It's a critical job that captured the attention of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sent the crew a telegram prior to their arrival at the station. "It's up to you, the first permanent crew on the International Space Station, to open up a new chapter in the history of international space exploration: To make habitable the orbital 'house' that has been created through the labor of specialists from various countries," Putin said. A joint project of space agencies from 16 nations on four continents, station construction now is to be completed in mid-2006. The outpost -- which eventually will weigh 480 tons and span an area as large as a city block -- then is expected to operate in orbit another decade beyond that. Shepherd and company represent the first of an estimated 45 full-time crews that will live and work aboard the station during the next 15 years. Their initial set-up work at the station will clear the way for three visiting shuttle crews over the course of the next several months. A five-man crew scheduled for launch aboard shuttle Endeavour Nov. 30 will haul up power-producing solar arrays to the station. Next up will be the Jan. 18 launch of shuttle Atlantis with the scientific heart of the station -- a U.S. lab dubbed Destiny. The first battery of research experiments then will be flown up to the station aboard shuttle Discovery in mid-February along with the second full-time outpost crew. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev and two American astronauts -- Susan Helms and Jim Voss -- will replace the Expedition One crew, which will return to Earth aboard Discovery on Feb. 26. Look for the frenetic pace of station construction to continue over the next five years. Add them all up and 37 more U.S. shuttle and Russian rocket missions will be required to finish the station during that time. "The last four or five months the pace has really been accelerating," said Van Laak. "I've been using the analogy of a roller coaster where you've crested the first hill and the pace is really starting to pick up on the back side. That's where we are," he said. "And it's very, very exciting to see these things rolling along."
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