CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Just like Bob Barker - the ageless host of the American TV game show The Price Is Right - the next resident crew of the International Space Station might find themselves saying "Come On Down!" to U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito.
Or perhaps "Come On Up!" might be more appropriate.
But in any case, the Russian commander of the so-called Expedition Two crew and his two U.S. colleagues said Wednesday that whomever shows up in a fresh Soyuz emergency rescue ship in May will get a cordial reception aboard station Alpha.
"We'll try to make their stay as pleasant as possible - no matter who has brought that taxi up - because we certainly appreciate the service," said NASA's Susan Helms, who will serve on the crew along with expedition commander Yuri Usachev and fellow U.S. astronaut James Voss.
Usachev, a veteran cosmonaut who has flown aboard both the Mir space station and a NASA space shuttle, feels much the same way. The make-up of the crew, he said, is not as critical as the delivery of a new station lifeboat.
"To me, what's more important is that we have to change our space vehicle in May because we have to have our rescue vehicle," Usachev said.
"And from my perspective as commander, we'll welcome any - I don't know whether to call them tourists, cosmonauts [or] astronauts - aboard International Space Station," he added."It's not our decision, and we can have our opinion, but we will be very pleasant [with any] crewmembers and say 'Welcome' to any people [coming] to the International Space Station."
Usachev, Helms and Voss made the comments Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center, where they are taking part in a two-day practice countdown for the planned March 8 launch of shuttle Discovery.
A four-man shuttle crew led by veteran astronaut James Wetherbee will ferry Usachev and his crewmates up to the international station and then return to Earth March 20 with the outpost's current residents: Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev.
The seven met with reporters prior to emergency training at launch pad 39B. And the first question fielded dealt with the possibility that Tito might be flying to the station with two cosmonauts on a mission to deliver a fresh Soyuz spacecraft to the outpost.
A former NASA engineer, Tito signed a multimillion-dollar contract last month with the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos. The contract calls for the wealthy investment banker to make a 10-day round-trip to the station with cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Butarin.
Launch is scheduled for April 30 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio's mission would be to deliver the fresh Soyuz and then return to Earth aboard one currently parked at the station. That Soyuz will reach the end of its orbital design life in late April or early May.
The subject has been a touchy one with NASA - an agency that is disinclined to fly paying customers up to the international station.
A three-day meeting to discuss the notion of launching civilians to the station had been scheduled for this week but ultimately was cancelled. Topics on a tentative agenda included hammering out crew training, safety and medical testing criteria for would-be civilian visitors.
Discovery skipper Weatherbee, meanwhile, added his two cents during the informal chat with members of the NASA press corps.
Gazing around at two huge liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen reservoirs that are separated by the launch tower to avoid contact and possible ignition, the veteran shuttle commander told reporters that spaceflight still is a high-risk business.
"If you look around at the launch pad, there's an oxygen tank there with several million pounds of [liquid] oxygen. There's a fuel tank on the other side with explosive propellant, and about three weeks from now, they're going to clear the launch pad," he said.
"They're going to say OK, everybody here leave - except you seven. Come on up here, and we'd like you to go up and build the space station," he added.
The point?
"It's a business where you really need to have folks who are qualified. I think that as long as we have certification processes and training - and people really know what they're doing - then some day [flying space tourists] will be OK," Wetherbee said.
"It's kind of analogous to asking if you'd like to allow somebody to go drive in the Indy 500. You probably wouldn't do it, unless you were satisfied that they were capable, and confident that they could keep themselves and the crew safe. So some day I think it will happen."
He didn't say when.
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