Midway through a five-month stay aboard the station, Helms in recent days has been making what amounts to a space-to-ground sales pitch to fellow astronauts who might be reluctant to take on a lengthy tour aboard the orbital outpost.
"There have been many shuttle flights where the entire crew could come back and say they didnt even have time to look out the window because there was so much work they were trying to accomplish in just that precious time when the shuttle is in orbit."
Astronaut Susan Helms, ISS Flight Engineer
At a time when many NASA astronauts are hesitant to commit to a job that requires extensive travel and time away from home, Helms says the station experience is underrated. Particularly when one considers the frenetic pace of shuttle missions, typically two-week flights during which every minute of an astronauts time in orbit is micromanaged.
"There have been many shuttle flights where the entire crew could come back and say they didnt even have time to look out the window because there was so much work they were trying to accomplish in just that precious time when the shuttle is in orbit," Helms said in a separate interview.
"However, with a long-duration flight, we do have the ability to slow the pace down a little bit, because this is more like living a life than coming up here on a business trip."
A veteran of four task-packed shuttle missions, Helms tallied 44 days in space before embarking on NASAs second expedition to the international station in early March.
During each of her shuttle flights, Helms found herself scrambling to carry out mission objectives, such deploying or retrieving satellites, conducting scientific experiments, or repairing systems aboard the first building block of the new station.
Hectic workdays, with little time set aside to rest and relax, were the norm.
"Shuttle crews dont really stop and take breaks," said Helms, 43. "They are doing things all the time."
Living and working aboard the international station, she said, is an entirely different experience.
Its not that Helms and her crewmates outpost commander Yuri Usachev and flight engineer Jim Voss havent been busy.
Theyve been working long days, starting up science experiments, wrestling with onboard computer problems and testing the stations newly installed Canadian robot arm, which has had troubles of its own.
They also have been spending a good deal of time doing housekeeping chores, but a "job jar" approach to the work is enabling the crew to tackle tasks while leaving ample time to gaze out station windows, do somersaults in weightlessness or just chat around the kitchen table.
"And as a result of that, Jim, Yuri and I have had more time to appreciate what we see out the window, more time to appreciate the positive aspects of microgravity not just for science purposes but for human interest purposes," Helms said. "And I guess I just never realized how much we were missing by flying on a short shuttle flight."
NASA, however, has been hard pressed in recent years to find volunteers for long term stays in space. The agency between June 1995 and June 1998 had to look long and hard to find seven astronauts willing to fly on Russias space station Mir.
And when it comes staffing the new international station, many astronauts still prefer to suit up for shuttle dashes to and from low Earth orbit.
Chalk that up to the time and effort it takes to first train for and then carry out a station expedition.
Station crew assignments typically call for extensive travel between the U.S. and Russia so that astronauts can train at both Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center outside Moscow.
Frequent trips to Russia not to mention other countries involved in the 16-nation project -- tend to take station-bound astronauts away from home for weeks or months at a time, a situation thats not entirely appealing to those with families.
Difficult and demanding Russian language courses also are required so that astronauts can carry out fluent conversations with specialists at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, an aerospace enclave thats also outside Moscow.
And the time between an expedition assignment and an end-of-mission touchdown can add up to a significant chunk of ones life. The first two station crews, for example, spent five and four years, respectively, in preflight training.
Ask either Helms or Voss, though, and the outpost flight engineers will tell you that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
On a shuttle flight, astronauts share a small crew cabin the size of a panel van with a half-dozen others. In contrast, the station now comprises four bus-sized wings that stretch 171 feet (52 meters), providing both more privacy and enough room for astronauts to act like Superman, or Superwoman, when "flying" from end to end.
"The shuttle is a fairly cramped environment. And were usually talking about six or seven people that are in the equivalent volume of a Volkswagon bus for two to two-and-a-half weeks on end without being able to open the doors and get some relief," Helms said.
"Up here on the space station, we usually have three people, and we have four separate modules, and the ability to play around in this kind of space is just wonderful," she said. "Its not something I had appreciated prior to this flight."
Day-to-day work aboard the outpost is a bit more varied than jobs carried out on highly focused shuttle missions, ranging from a diverse array of scientific research to construction work and the more general business of keeping a large complex flying safely in space.
"Its never just another day at the office up here," said Voss, 52, who also is a veteran of four previous shuttle flights. "We really do enjoy our work up here, and every day is different."
Beyond work, station crews have plenty of time to spend in their orbital gymnasium, typically exercising two hours a day to ward off the adverse effects of long stays in weightlessness.
And they also have time to read books, listen to music, pen letters home and watch movies. Unlike busy shuttle crews, Voss, Helms and Usachev have carved out enough time to watch two flicks in orbit.
"Well, one and a half actually," Voss said. "We never quite finished Alien. But we watched Braveheart, and we finished it in three sittings because we always were falling asleep after about an hour. Not because it was a bad movie its a great movie but because we were so tired."
The sightseeing opportunities, meanwhile, are incomparable.
Shuttle astronauts jockeying for space in front of relatively tiny flight deck windows. But station tenants have 13 portholes in their crew quarters alone, and a huge round picture window in the U.S. Destiny laboratory.
"Sometimes well be floating by, going from one place to another, and see something just spectacular out the window, and call the others over to take a look at it," Voss said. "We really enjoy looking out the windows when we have an opportunity to do it. And we spend time there when we have free time."
All in all, both Helms and Voss say that living and working on the station is an experience that hesitant NASA astronauts might want to reconsider.
"We think that this is the highest point in our careers. And the only way you top it," Helms said, "is to come up and do it again."
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